Silo level monitoring Part 2: When a Silo High Level Alarm is not enough…

When a Silo High Level Alarm is not enough…

Sometimes in silo level monitoring, it doesn’t just do to have a silo overfill level alarm in place. One such documented case is when a tanker offloaded cement into a silo, which was already full from the day before. This resulted in an explosion during loading and the filter housing unit shot out of the top of the silo and landed on the ground nearby. Thankfully no one was hurt, but they did have overfill protection devices in place, so what happened and why did the silo overfill?

The silo overfill high-level alarm had been muted when the silo was filled the day before, usually this would reset itself, but as the probe was still covered in cement, it did not reset. The silo also had a pressure release valve, but it was caked in cement and unresponsive.

We can therefore surmise that likely causes of this silo explosion was a number of preventable events like; allowing the tanker to offload, the muted high level alarm, lack of awareness of overfill and pressure relief devices and no pre-check system in place.

As this illustrates it’s no good getting overfill prevention devices, unless you maintain and operate them responsibility.

Did you read the first part of this article? if not you can find it at:

Silo level monitoring Part 1: What’s the Worst Thing that Could Happen in the event of a Silo Overfill?

Still to come:

Silo level monitoring Part 3:  So What Kind of Overfill Prevention Devices Do You Recommend for Bulk Solids?

Silo level monitoring Part 4: Reasons to choose Radar Technology for silo level measurement

Silo level monitoring Part 5: High level overfill prevention switches

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Related posts:

1. Silo level monitoring Part 1
2. Silo level monitoring Part 3: Recommended Overfill Prevention Devices for Bulk Solids
3. Silo level monitoring Part 4: Reasons to choose Radar Technology for silo level measurement
4. Silo level monitoring Part 5: High level overfill prevention switches
5. Articles on Level Monitoring Sensors