Challenges solved by fabric structures
Published by John Williams,
Editorial Assistant
Dry Bulk,
Getting dry bulk materials from point A to point B usually requires storage for the materials at both point A and point B. Keeping material out of the weather is required, but often a solution is needed quickly. Logistically speaking, fabric structures are ideal for bulk storage for at least five reasons:
1. Speed of construction
Fabric buildings typically go up faster than wood, brick, concrete or steel build-ings. How much faster? If the weather holds, a crew can install a storage building in days or weeks, not months.
Some fabric buildings are prefabricated, so they just need to be transported and installed. These off-the-shelf structures come in set sizes. Once the buildings are on trucks and rolling to a site, a crew can put them up quickly. These fabric buildings tend to be hoop structures, meaning steel semi-circular frames go up and a covering (usually a single piece of fabric) is stretched over them.
Other tension fabric buildings are different in that they use solid steel frames. Steel frames such as these have a long track record for reliability and proven en-gineering. They also allow for a wide array of design options. Finally, these rigid structures provide a lot of advantages in terms of corrosion prevention and sup-port for equipment that facilitates loading and unloading.
Here are some factors a building owner should have in place to make the pro-cess of constructing a fabric building as smooth as possible:
- Own or lease the land.
- Install a concrete slab or foundation so crews can begin work right away when they arrive.
- Finalise the design and resist last minute changes.
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Read the article online at: https://www.drybulkmagazine.com/dry-bulk/20022020/challenges-solved-by-fabric-structures/
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