Silo cleaning sorted

As its customers supply the major UK supermarkets with meat and dairy products, Harbro itself undergoes regular annual audits as a requirement of UFAS, the feed trade quality assurance body. With hygiene a part of this requirement, a wide-ranging project to inspect and clean all 120 silos across four sites commenced in mid-2014.

After having engaged Hygiene Group for previous overhead cleaning work, Harbro approached the company to develop a bespoke solution.

Hygiene Group's Chris Armstrong said: "Each silo presents a unique challenge, from the sheer size of a 1,000 tonne, 23-metre high silo to the problems posed by top-access structures, but 30 years of experience plus up-to-date confined space training gives us the solutions to even the most complex tasks. 

"Working with a specialist scaffolding supplier, we are using an ATEX-approved mobile tower to tackle the larger silos, while elsewhere a tripod and winch system with a Bosun’s chair has proved successful. The key is designing a flexible approach which can be adapted to each silo and the available access points as necessary to get the job done."