Published
We have started the mechanical assembly of the pellet silos at Biotim Timișoara, Romania's future largest biomass pellet plant. Storage capacity: 2,000 tonnes. The equipment comes from Mulmix.
This is our second job on the site. In May we were assembling the Cormall straw debaling line, and we said then that we would report back as the site progressed.
The other end of the process line
The debaling line is the entry point: straw bales are opened there and the fibre moves on to grinding, conditioning and pelletising. The silos are the exit. The finished pellets end up in them, and leave from there to the customer.
These are two distinct jobs, with equipment from different suppliers and assembly methods that have little in common. What stays the same is the site and the crew.
Mulmix silos on a raised concrete platform
The silos do not sit on a ground slab. They are mounted on a concrete platform carried on columns, with a loading bay left clear underneath for the truck to pull into.
There is a practical reason for this. The pellets come down from the cell by gravity, straight into the truck. No extra conveyor, no double handling, no machine shuttling the load from silo to weighbridge. In a plant sized for large volumes, the time it takes to load one truck is a cost that adds up every single day.
For us, the height changes how the work is done. Assembly happens at level, with the material lifted onto the platform and every check carried out up there.
How a metal silo is assembled: ring by ring
A metal silo is not raised in one piece. It goes up ring by ring, in corrugated galvanised sheet, bolted according to the manufacturer's documentation.
We check verticality on every ring as the structure grows, not at the end. A small deviation at the base is amplified by height, and if you find it once the cell is finished, you are dismantling rather than correcting. Joints are tightened to the torque specified in the design.
The photographs show the chain hoists and the lifting straps used to position the courses — controlled lifting rather than reaching for the crane at every move. The telescopic crane comes in for the large pieces and for the roof.
It is the same method we use for mechanical assembly of grain silos, whatever is stored inside them.
Roof, walkways and safe access
The conical roof goes over the body of the cell, followed by the railing ring, the central platform and the access stairs between silos.
This part is not decoration. A silo is inspected, cleaned and maintained throughout its working life, and whoever climbs up there needs to reach the inspection hatch, the sensors and the ventilation safely. Railings, platform and stairs are part of the job from the outset, not something added afterwards.
Mechanical assembly on a site working in parallel
The site does not wait for us. The elevator towers and transport galleries are already up and painted, other crews are working in parallel, and crane access has to be negotiated around everything else going on.
That takes daily coordination: who lifts, when, along which route, and what stays clear for everyone else. On a site this size, planning the lifts matters as much as the assembly itself.
What comes next
Once the cells are closed, the connections to the feed and discharge conveyors follow, with levels verified, then the trials and mechanical commissioning.
We will report back on this one too, as the work moves on.
Do you need mechanical silo assembly on your own site, for grain or for biomass? Get in touch and we will come back with a proposal.
