On the 3rd July 2017, a small team that included John Craven, Ascend Rope Access’ Irata level III project manager and lead technician, performed a thorough cleaning service on one of Bowman Ingredients’ flour silos, located in Cape Town’s industrial area of Epping 1. The silo Ascend Rope Access worked on was just one of four such structures on the property, which, individually, has a staggering 35-tonne capacity. The job was performed efficiently and within a single day, allowing Bowman Ingredients to get the silo back up and running almost immediately!
Most silos are used to store food, usually grains, flours, and seeds etc. These food products leave behind oils, residues, and other biological traces that can begin to decay over time, thereby leaving the entire contents of the silo vulnerable to contamination. It’s for this reason that silos require regular maintenance and cleaning, usually once every four to six months.
Bowman Ingredients’ flour silo was newly commissioned in February of this year, 2017, and so it was still under warranty. The problem the company needed remedied was the fact that the original inner coating of the silo hadn’t been done properly. Since this special coating is applied to prevent the fine flour from sticking to the inner surface of the silo, this particular structure was, in places, building up a layer of flour residue.
Now, every day, fresh flour is pumped into these silos. If any of this flour sticks to the interior walls of the structure and remains in place, it can become stale and affect the quality of the fresh flour being pumped in. This, in turn, affects the quality and freshness of the products being made from this flour, which, in the case of Bowman Ingredients’ silos in Cape Town, is bread!
In just one day, Bowman Ingredients can produce up to 60-tonnes of flour, which it distributes among these four silos. Because of this activity, flour is constantly coming and going. It was our job to ensure that the interior walls of the silo don’t encourage a build-up of flour residue and, therefore, don’t compromise the quality and freshness of the precious contents. It was for this very reason that the skilled team here at Ascend Rope Access was called in.
The silo was emptied of all its contents and we performed a thorough cleaning of its interior, not only removing every vestige of flour residue, but also the special coating layer that had been incorrectly applied to the silo. After our deep cleaning was complete, a team came into respray the silo interior to ensure that this problem doesn’t happen again.
We left the job site a few hours ahead of schedule, something we cannot guarantee, and with a very happy client on our hands!
Bowman Ingredients SA began as a joint venture with Jas Bowman and Sons, a food company based in the United Kingdom. Bowman Ingredients SA specializes in creating delicious food coatings, such as breadcrumbs and batters, the precise formulae of which has been tailored to meet the unique palates of the South African market.
Bowman Ingredients SA falls under the umbrella of Pioneer Foods, which is one of South Africa’s largest producers and distributors of a vast spectrum of well-known and loved beverage and food brands. It’s this attribute that makes the team here at Ascend Rope Access particularly proud of this project since it involves one of the country’s top companies.
