Corn storage silo comes as hopper silo, which is mostly used for storage of wet corn in a corndryer system. Time to hold just 24 hours, sufficient aeration is required. Hoppersilo’s are limited to smaller capacity’s, usual up to 500 tons. Price will increase very sharply after that size. Maximum capacity is about 1000 ton.

Then there are the flat bottom silo, most common capacity’s are 1000 ton, 1500, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 ton. But can be up to 10.000 ton as well. Silo’s as storage for corn should be minimal two units, because it is not advisable to fill a silo which is also being discharged. Corn silo’s are not really FIFO (first-in, first-out), so the first corn will stay at the corner until the silo is cleaned out completely!

Silo’s come with ladders and manhole at the side (2nd ring from bottom) and at the roof. Optional  (but required when storing for more than two weeks) is an aeration system, consisting of  blower(s), aeration duct inside the silo and aeration vents at the roof. Aeration requirement is usually underestimated in Indonesia, due to the tropical climate, high temperature, high moisture, therefore  a big quantity of air is required( two or three times the recommended size from suppliers from the USA, they have moderate climate in the corn belt!)

The aerationsystem, should be complete with Temperature measuring system. This system consist of a set temperature measuring cables, number of cables depending on size of silo, each cable has a number of temperature sensors, numbers per cable depending on height of silo. These sensors will provide a reasonable indication of the corn temperature inside the silo. The temperature display can be read by a handheld device or connected to a computer in the silo control room.
Foundation of the silo should be raised in order to have the silo discharge conveyor above ground level, ease of maintenance and cleaning.

For maintaining corn quality during storage contact www.delst.asia.com.

Quality of silo’s for Indonesia can be measured by the thickness of the galvanizing. The thicker the better, because of the high humidity, usual European manufacturers use thicker layer of galvanizing! The advantage of Chinese made silo’s is that they use in general a lower strength of steel  and therefore the sheets will be slightly thicker, this again is more advantageous in Indonesia with its high humidity. Thin sheets will develop holes very soon after the first sign of corrosion appears, whereas the thicker sheets will last longer.

Discharge of silo’s must ALWAYS form the center slide, until no more corn flow from there. Then the other discharge can be used. Silo’s are designed to balance the force of grain at the sides, an uneven distribution of corn can cause collapse of the silo!