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Funnel Flow

Funnel flow silos are usually more cost effective to construct, costing between 20-30% less than mass flow silos, but are not suitable for all materials.

Funnel Flow Silo Diagram

The flow channel drains material in the middle first. As the silo empties, side material flows into the middle channel. Because of this flow pattern, funnel flow silos that are not emptied completely on a regular basis keep stagnant, or dead, material against the silos walls. Without scheduled emptying, this causes material to build up along the silos walls and leads to issues like ratholing or irregular flow.

Taken together, these factors can enhance particle segregation, limit your live capacity, and cause silo failure. Generally, a funnel flow pattern is only suitable for coarse, free flowing, non-degrading solids when segregation is minimal.

Learn more about Funnel Flow Silos.

Mass Flow

Mass flow silos do not experience the same material flow issues as funnel flow silos. Stored materials move down the silo as a column, with no flow channels and the first materials in are the first materials out, providing for a uniform flow.

Mass Flow Silo Diagram

Mass flow is ideal for materials that are susceptible to segregation based on particle size or density, minimized by the first in, first out flow sequence, with the segregated particles remixing as they discharge. It is an ideal flow pattern for coal or other materials that are combustible or perishable.

Learn more about Mass Flow Silos.

Funnel flow and mass flow are common silo flow patterns. In addition to these two are expanded flow and fluidized flow patterns. Find out more about the different types of concrete silo flow patterns.

To learn more, be sure to check out our full library of videos on silo maintenance, inspection and repair on

Roof-Top Silo Coating

Posted by Dennis Blauser, August 5, 2019

When it comes to keeping your silo clean and running efficiently day in and day out, it’s vital that you are proactive with preventive silo maintenance. One of the most important is checking your silo roof and walls to make sure they are leakproof.

Many concrete silos have either a membrane cover, a concrete slab or other material covering the silo roof. Over time, roof covers develop holes, allowing water intrusion under the roof cover material. Once the water gets underneath, it is trapped and eventually travels along the concrete roof to a crack. Once the trapped water finds an opening, water can make its way into the silo and compromise stored materials. Natural freeze and thaw cycles allow water to expand and contract inside fine exterior cracks and jeopardize a silo’s structural stability.

Our Roof-Top and Exterior Wall Coating Method

It’s essential that your silo is completely watertight. Even pinhole leaks in silo roofs and walls can damage stored materials and can result in blockages and material flow issues. When selecting a roof covering for a concrete silo, it is critical to select a coating that adheres directly to concrete, rather than a roof cover that merely conceals the concrete roof and can hide future issues.

USA Silo Service has developed a unique silo roof and silo wall sealing method, a rubber product that applies to a concrete or steel silo roof to cover cracks, holes and equipment attachment areas.

Before and After Roof-Top Silo Coating

This sealing method can be used for roof surfaces or for steel bolted silo joints to offer excellent protection against oxidation, humidity and corrosive environments. Our rubberized coating also resists alkali, salts, abrasions and fumes.

Additional benefits of roof-top silo coatings:

Not a floating membrane
Offers excellent adhesion to aluminum, galvanized steel, painted surfaces, modified bitumen, steel joints and many other surfaces
Excellent in sealing cracks, laps, fasteners and roof surface penetrations
Available in all 50 states and in a variety of colors

Our rubber coating reduces costly reapplications of surface protectants and can be applied to many surfaces including: metal buildings and roofs, built up roof (BUR) membranes, grain silos and bins, silo exterior walls, single ply roofs, urethane foam roofs and steel bolted joints.

Our roof-top silo coating method is a proven industrial roof coating system that keeps elements out and stored materials dry. Request a quote from us today.

See Case History – Does Your Concrete Silo Roof Leak?

Be sure to check out our full library of silo maintenance videos on

Our Silo Cleaning Method

Posted by Dennis Blauser, July 1, 2019

A clean silo is comparable to a clean bill of health. When a silo is working efficiently, it's successfully meeting production goals. If a silo gets clogged or blocked, production slows down immediately and an array of problems and issues become inevitable. Despite the problems that can arise from a poorly maintained silo, many postpone cleaning and often deem this required maintenance as unnecessary. They may also find silo cleaning expensive and not worth the potential loss of production downtime.

The fact is: silo cleaning is a cost savings benefit that removes buildup and recovers lost material, while maximizing production and profit.

Why Routine Silo Cleaning Matters

Hung up, clogged or slow running silos are a problem that will interfere with efficiency and profitability. Material buildup deters the silo from reaching its full capacity and we have seen many cases where material buildup and blockages only allowed for the silo to reach half of its capacity. Once a silo begins to lose flow, this accelerates the buildup over time and can lead to additional blockages. It is extremely important that the silo be cleaned professionally if material buildup or other issues are visible.

Professional Cleaning - Let Our Experts Do the Job

We are your resource for silo cleaning. No matter the type of silo (concrete, steel, flat or cone bottom, funnel or mass flow) or type of material stored (cement, clay, fly ash, grain products and more), we are your professional team of experts. Our specialists are also trained to respond quickly to emergency silo cleaning needs, although our goal is to eliminate emergency plant outages related to silo blockages entirely.

As soon as a partial blockage becomes apparent, it's necessary to schedule a cleaning. Our silo cleaning methods will:

Remove material buildup
Restore flow rates
Recover silo capacity
Prevent cross contamination
Reclaim lost material

The Boss - Silo Cleaning Equipment

Professional silo cleaning companies typically use a remote, dry cleaning system to remove stubborn material buildup. The most powerful system available in the U.S. is a unique clean-out head, The Boss, proprietary to USA Silo Service. The Boss removes the most material buildup in the least amount of time, making it the most efficient and cost-effective cleaning system available. It’s many times more powerful than a whip cleaning machine and two-thirds more powerful than pneumatic cleaning systems.

The Boss is a unique clean-out head designed to accommodate variable attachments which are selected by our field crews to match the type of material being removed. Our silo cleaning technique includes operating in a systematic pattern within the silo to remove the toughest build-ups.

In fact, The Boss is 65% more powerful than other pneumatic systems. By removing more material faster and with more efficiency than any other clean-out method, including the whip system, The Boss accelerates the cleaning process. This minimizes downtime and out time on-site, providing immediate cost-savings.

Learn more about the advantages of The Boss cleaning system in the video below.

Our silo cleaning methods will save you the most time and money.

Request a quote today.

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