Three 60m3 stainless steel cream tanks for Sycamore Process Engineering
“The communication during the initial sales enquiry right the way through to project delivery has been seamless.”
Sycamore Process Engineering provides processing solutions for the dairy, food, beverage and plant-based industries. Sycamore contacted Gpi Tanks to request the design and construction of three 60m3 stainless steel tanks for the storage of cream, for a leading client in the dairy industry.
Paul Manning, Project Director at Sycamore explains why the company opted for Gpi: “Gpi was able to deliver the tanks in time and within budget. We’ve worked with Gpi on multiple projects and from experience we knew the quality we could expect from tanks being manufactured in Lopik.” Gpi was given the contract for the supply of three stainless steel tanks for the bulk storage of cream.
About the tanks
The tanks are intended to increase the capacity of the sites bulk cream storage before it is processed. The stainless steel tanks needed to satisfy the same specifications as tanks previously supplied through a different contractor which were already located on site. The tanks are constructed on the basis of the EN 13445 standard for the design, manufacture and inspection of unfired pressure vessels. The three tanks are identical, having an overall height of over 11 metres and a diameter of more than 2.8 metres.
“The tanks are of a high quality and correspond to the specifications of the current tanks on site,” explains Paul. “One of the toughest challenges we faced was matching the stainless steel profiled cladding which has been achieved to a satisfactory level. It’s always difficult to match external cladding on silos between different manufacturers as they have their own supply chain. The result met both our and the clients expectations, which demonstrates flexibility.”
Transport and installation
Before leaving the factory, an extensive Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) was carried out, at which both the Quality Engineer and Process Engineer of Sycamore were present. The tanks were manufactured in Lopik and transported by truck to the end user in the United Kingdom, where Sycamore assumed responsibility for installing the tanks on location. Paul relates some of the minor damage experienced during the transportation stage: “The damage occurred when the tanks were being transported, but Gpi responded quickly to resolve these minor issue.”
About the collaboration and the result
The new tanks gave the client an increase volume of bulk cream storage, which gives them more options to process locally, import or export as required. The three stainless steel tanks form part of a larger project for Sycamore, which included hygienic mixproof manifolds for distribution of the bulk cream.
Paul looks back positively at the project: “We’ve worked with Gpi for many years and are particularly happy with the build quality of these three tanks. The communication during the initial sales enquiry right the way through to project delivery has been seamless.”
