Expertise in silo design and regulations

Braby, the UK's leading designer and manufacturer of silos and vessels, has recently supplied Village Bakery (Coedpoeth) with a silo package for the storage of savoury flour

Braby, the UK's leading designer and manufacturer of silos and vessels, has recently supplied Village Bakery (Coedpoeth) with a silo package for the storage of savoury flour.

The silo is part of a GBP3 million project to expand the manufacturing capabilities of the facility.

The Wrexham based manufacturer of high quality bread and savoury pastry products is currently striving to fully automate their bakery process.

Braby designed a bespoke 35 tonne capacity aluminium silo, capable of interfacing into a SCADA Control package.

Previously, flour for savoury products was stored on pallets and loaded manually into the mixing bowl.

Now, flour is transferred to process using a vacuum conveying system.

The conveying system was chosen as it keeps the flour cool - ideal when making pastry as ingredients are not activated in the mixer bowl.

Braby were required to install the silo 35 metres away from the main building to allow tanker access.

Consequently, extended fill lines were fitted.

Linked to Village Bakery's drive for further automation, and to maintain production levels, Braby installed a high level and over pressure alarm system which automatically cuts off the fill line should a tanker over fill or over pressurise the silo.

As well as design considerations, Braby were also required to ensure that the silo met with all the latest legislation requirements such as ATEX.

Since all bakers must fully comply with the directive by 1 July 2006 (and any new equipment must comply since July 2003), this piece of legislation must be considered when installing any new equipment.

Today's design criteria for silos includes maximum shock pressure, operating pressure, vent area and calculated design stress.

All vessels, silos and bins must also have ATEX approved explosion relief panels, explosion suppression or quenching systems and be earthed to protect them from the build up of static electricity.

Using Braby expertise in this area, Village Bakery were able to ensure that their equipment was certified and met all the required standards.

Chris Jones, Projects Director at Village Bakery said "we chose Braby, not least because of the quality of their systems.

Overall, Braby offered performance and were able to deliver to the time scale we requested.

Braby also guided us through our legislation concerns - making the whole process of procurement a lot easier".

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