Lipp Offers Retro-Fit Stainless Steel
Diaphragm Cover For Storage Tanks
Tank sealing ring on
a new installation
ank specialists Lipp have
developed a stainless-steel
diaphragm roof for covering
large-scale steel and
reinforced concrete storage
containers. The legislative requirements for
meeting clean air emissions targets, which
have become increasingly strict over the
past few years, exist for safe regulation of
containers with problematical content;
either from a toxicity or odour control
perspective. These requirements impact
upon a number of industries and
situations; including areas of municipal
waste-water disposal, the chemical,
pharmaceutical and food processing
industries as well as farm based material
storage for anaerobic digestion and slurry
management.
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Given that much of this legislation has
been put in place recently, this has
presented challenges in terms achieving
a cost effective upgrade solution for plant
and operations management. The Lipp
stainless-steel diaphragm is the perfect
choice for retrospectively covering existing
steel or reinforced concrete containers
as well as Lipp's own Dual-Seam System
stainless steel containers.
The self-supporting, light-weight,
diaphragm design is made of stainless
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steel – with high mechanical strength
and resistance to ageing – which enables
containers with diameters of up to 100
m diameter to be spanned. The sheet
material simultaneously assumes a
supporting shape that closes off the
internal space and can withstand snow
loads and high winds. Martin Grant, the UK
Sales and Marketing Manager commented,
"In light of the ever more stringent
legislation covering air quality and the new
Totex value accounting methods adopted
by the UK Utilities, the ability to upgrade
existing storage capacity with a cost
effective roofing solution is a welcome one
within the UK market".
The Lipp stainless-steel diaphragm
cover is corrosion-resistant, gas and
vapour diffusion resistant and is not
susceptible to UV radiation or damage.
The lightweight design of the diaphragm
is excellently suited to covering
volatile substances. Welding work at
the installation site is eliminated by
prefabricating the diaphragm cover at the
Lipp manufacturing plant. The completed
diaphragm is then shipped to the site for
fitting. As the design of the completed
sheet stainless steel diaphragm is both
strong and highly flexible, the tank
cover arrives on site as a large roll on a
transporter. The cover is then fitted and
sealed to the existing tank with a bolted
and sealed ring which provides a water
and gas tight seal at atmospheric presure.
Once installed on to the tank the diaphragm
roof can then be subsequently fitted
with various valve and pressure relief
systems, depending upon the application
requirements.
As well as having applications within water
utility and processing plant applications,
the tank covers can be used for on-farm
slurry tanks as a retro-fit. This means that
slurry tanks can be insulated to prevent
rainfall diluting and increasing the volume
of stored slurry and can be fitted with
off-gas safety valves ensuring that biogas
build up within the sealed slurry tank is
safely managed. Retro-fitting a stainless
steel cover considerably extends that life
of the tank without the unwanted cost of
replacing the existing open tank with a
new covered one.
The innovative diaphragm cover system
has been used in mainland Europe for
a number of years and is now available
within the UK and Ireland through Lipp
and has recently been fitted to a new
large-scale processing plant in Wakefield.
For further details contact Martin Grant.