Irish Cement Clinker Silo - Project Update (17th June 2008)

Structural steel for the Clinker Silo project at Irish Cement's Platin Works in Drogheda, Co. Louth, is currently being erected on site in a carefully co-ordinated operation by AMSE.

This scheme involves the construction of a complex conical roof and portal frame penthouse above a 40m (135') diameter x 33m(110') high concrete silo. The project also involved the construction of two conveyors, one inclined conveyor including a 30m high supporting trestle and one horizontal conveyor , which once operational will be used to "feed" the Silo with clinker and other raw materials.

The Clinker Silo is part the €200m Platin Kiln 3 Project, which Irish Cement formally commenced in May 2007. The completed project will represent a state of the art cement manufacturing facility and will operate to world class standards in energy efficiency and environmental performance.

AMSE were appointed in early February 2008, and contracted to detail, fabricate and erect the primary steelwork for the project and were also awarded the Grate Cooler building.

Procurement, Drawing and Fabrication

On the receipt of detailed design information, from project consulting engineers Mott MacDonald, AMSE technicians produced a procurement model within a week allowing 80% of materials to be ordered by mid-March. AMSE Purchasing Manager Anne Corcoran co-ordinated the procurement of steel sections from Corus Service Centres Ireland, and ensured that all hot-rolled sections, which were ordered from a seven week cycle of UK mills rolling, were delivered to AMSE’s production facility on time.

With the procurement model complete, AMSE technicians then set about producing detailed drawings of the project over an 8 week period. Once detailed drawings received approval from Mott MacDonald, fabrication of the Silo Roof commenced on 21st April 2008.

The Silo Roof is a conical structure consisting of a series 18 No. 24m long trusses, each weighing 9 tonnes and connected to a 4m (diameter) x 2m (high) central circular ring made of plate at the top.

The fabrication of the this phase took five weeks, with the first load being delivered to site on 12th May to allow for the trusses to be pre-assembled into 9 fully braced pairs over a three week period.

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In order to lift the Silo Ring into place a tower crane mast was erected, in the centre of the concrete Silo floor, the last week in May and a working platform was secured 48m from the floor upon which was placed the plate circular ring.

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The trusses were then lifted into position using a combination of a 350tonne and 250tonne mobile cranes and placed first on top of the bearing plates on the top of the concrete silo structure, then to the ring with high strength friction grip bolted connections.

Once four trusses had been erected and fully bolted to the central ring, the structure was now self-supporting and the temporary supports to the central ring were removed to allow the roof the be completed without any risk of overloading the central mast.

The remainder of the roof truss where installed over the following day and work is ongoing with the installation of the intermediate members between the truss pairs.

The central tower mast is now used for personnel access to the working platform and will be removed prior to the installation of the conveyors.

Steelwork for the Inclined and Level Conveyors is now fully fabricated and pre-assembly is currently underway on site. A detailed synopsis of this phase will appear in our next website update.