New silo supports European expansion

Barton Fabrications has installed a seventh silo to store PVC powder at IKO Polymeric’s single ply roofing membrane production facility in Chesterfield.

IKO Polymeric, which produces solutions for flat and pitched roofs and the waterproofing industry, has installed the latest silo in response to demand created by expansion into Europe.

The silo joins a bank of three existing Barton aluminium silos containing PVC feedstock and filler used in the production of roofing membranes. To provide extra capacity, the new silo is 4.2m x 15m and holds 90 tonnes of PVC powder, which is 25 tonnes larger than the current silos.

When the original plant was built in 2012, IKO Polymeric planned for an additional silo the same size as its existing vessels. However, rapid growth has led to the installation of this new, much larger silo which has nearly 40 per cent greater capacity than the existing silos.

Andrew McArthur, Production Manager of IKO Polymeric said: “We were very happy with the original Barton silos and therefore had no hesitation ordering the latest, larger, silo from the company. Barton liaised with our materials handling contractor to ensure there were no design issues: the installation ran very smoothly, it went exactly to plan as advised by Barton and our existing production schedule wasn’t impacted.

“In addition to meeting extra product demand, the larger silo provides additional on-site storage capacity to help ease logistical issues caused by the variable daily demand from our plant and two-week lead time for PVC feedstock.”