When it’s time to start the new paving season, attention turns to the loadout area. You’re about to find out if your personnel maintained the silos properly over the winter. Barring anything horrifying—such as a surprise 200-ton chunk of solid cylindrical material—you should have only simple things to address.
Here’s a checklist for today’s toolbox talk about regular silo maintenance. Of course, before performing any maintenance near the silos, make sure access to the area beneath the gates is blocked in a way that personnel cannot walk beneath them unless everyone has confirmed the silo is completely empty. Remember to lock-out/tag-out.
- Lubricate air powered components regularly
- Open hinge pins frequently for greasing
- Put a quality moisture trap on the oiler
- Clean moisture out of solenoid valves and cylinders
- Check the compressed air system and air line oilers
- Drain water from air storage tanks and separators
During production:
- watch moisture contents of mixes going into the silos. The drier the material, the better.
- watch temperatures so improper temperature-control doesn’t lead to plugged cones.
- try not to elevate temperature more than 5 degrees for overnight storage purposes.
Do you have a plant operator or manager who should’ve received this tip? Go ahead and forward it to him or her now and if more folks on your team need to sign up for these quick-n-easy nuggets of gold, the link for that is here.
Don’t forget to stop by the AsphaltPro booth 3036 during World of Asphalt in St. Louis! We’ll have paving industry expert Bill Stanley available to answer questions and talk shop and we invite you to pick up a sticker sheet with instructions on how to enter to win a Yeti cooler from us!
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