250-Ton Silo For Lime Installed At Springfield

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30561, 2 October 1964, Page 18

250-Ton Silo For Lime Installed At Springfield

| Because of the increased demand for lime, a 250-ton ’ silo was installed at the Springfield Lime Company, Ltd.’s, works this week. Built at a cost of about £5OOO, the silo was transported to the company's ; works on Monday. The managing director (Mr E. McK. Gardner) hopes to have the new unit working within a fortnight Thirty-six lime sowers were now operating from the works at different times, and to cope with the demand he had the . choice of either duplicating his crushing plant or installing the silo for storing crushed lime, Mr Gardner said. The silo was less expensive and would require less maintenance. Erected on a concrete base 4ft 6in deep, the storage unit is 60ft high and weighs 15j tons. The cylindrical silo, without its Stand, is 47ft high i and 14ft in diameter. A 90ft ! conveyer belt from the crushing plant feeds the storage silo, which can be filled in i about a day and a half. A mobile crane was used ! in the erection of the unit and the conveyer belt. Because of its cylindrical shape, it is thought the silo will withstand the high winds to which the area is subjected better than a square bin. The journey from Christchurch to the lime works, on the banks of the Kowai river, a few miles west of Springfield, took between six and seven hours, Mr Gardner ' said.

The stand and the silo were transported on different vehicles, and care had to be taken on the way out of Christchurch because of overhead wires. The load had to be elevated slightly on the narrow Kowai river bridge. When the silo came into operation, Mr Gardner said, it was very likely that two shifts would be worked—one at njght to refill the silo—so that there would be no delay in providing operators with lime.