The use of full floor air-slide coverage yields many advantages and when initially filled with fresh cement, a silo should discharge almost completely.  However, after a few years of use and/or an encounter with a batch of high 'pack-set' cement, the silo's floor starts to look like the Swiss Alps or a moonscape. 

Discharge of the last 10 to 15% can be slow, erratic or impossible without silo entry and manual extraction.  Manual extraction is slow, expensive, results in lots of wasted cement and down-time (not to mention the unpleasant and hazardous working environment).

Results:

In this example, a small 4" TEI Fluidizer was tested on 192 sq.ft. zone of air-slides. It not only discharged the last 15% of cement down to the air-slide's cloth, it increased the discharge rate by 20%.

Use of the TEI Fluidizer at this import terminal will ultimately free up over 6,000 tons of active storage capacity, allowing significant increase in shipping frequency.

Improved Shipping Logistics

Sales trends, current stock levels, ship availability, shipping time and the economy are just a few parameters used to determine the shipping logistics of a cement import terminal.  In periods of high demand, the active size of the port storage is critical to maximizing throughput and minimizing transportation costs.  Studies have shown that just a 10% increase in active storage can allow import terminals to increase throughput by 30%.  You don't need to be a CPA to figure the impact to the bottom-line.

Cement import terminals equipped with air-slides and wanting to maximize profits, simply can't afford not to use TEI Fluidizers.

PMT trialed on a group of (2x8ft) air-slides [left-center].
Note, metal frame outline of air-slide grid.
FYI: piles in the background are 10-12ft high.