Mar. 24, 2025
High-capacity storage tanks are vital to many businesses including manufacturing facilities, municipal water distribution systems, wastewater treatment facilities, power plants, the oil and gas industry, and fire protection systems. They are often used to store potable water for municipal water systems, chemicals for manufacturing, fire suppressants drilling fluids, crude oil or refined fuels, and to perform well they must be water-tight, easy to maintain and repairable.
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Traditionally, large storage tanks have been either made from steel, which welded together and finished depending on size either offsite or onsite or concrete, which poured in place at the facility. Both types of tanks perform well but have some serious disadvantages. Offsite welded tanks can add significant transportation cost,
Field-welded steel tanks can be difficult to finish properly at the site, leading to an increased probability of corrosion, and the welds must be thoroughly inspected after completion to ensure that the tank will not leak.
Concrete tanks are exceedingly heavy, take large amounts of time to cure, and need constant resealing to prevent leaks.
A third option is bolted tanks, which use laser or die-cut steel panels that are bolted into place onsite. Bolted tanks offer the strength of steel, are quick to install and easy to maintain or repair.
Compared to concrete or field-welded steel tanks, here are 10 advantages of bolted tanks.
Because bolted tanks are manufactured offsite and arrive in ready-to-assemble sections, installation is quick and easy, and it can be constructed in just about any weather.
Steel tanks on the other hand must be welded and inspected onsite, and concrete tanks must be poured in place. Both require days of installation time, including plenty of labor and the associated costs, and if there happens to be inclement weather, the installation process can be delayed or postponed.
Unlike field-welded or concrete tanks that must be sealed and coated onsite, bolted tanks come in pre-finished sections.
Each section manufactured at an environmentally-controlled manufacturing facility, where the metal is formed and welded, then the surface coating is applied before there is any chance of corrosion taking place. The bare metal coated with a silica and zirconium liquid seal that inhibits corrosion and encourages adhesion of the final surface coating, which is an epoxy powder coating that is electrostatically applied and heat-cured to ensure a durable, corrosion-free finish.
Because the metalwork and finishing work done at a manufacturing facility, there is less pollution and waste involved in the finishing process.
Welded steel and concrete tanks are finished onsite, which often involves sprayed-on sealants that have environmental consequences if applied incorrectly, and the process can easily delay by bad weather, such as rain or wind, which can inhibit the curing of the sealant or lead to over-spray. In some municipalities, restrictions may be placed on how or when the sealants can be applied, leading to delays or high compliance costs.
With no onsite finishing required, bolted tanks are much more convenient and environmentally friendly.
Bolted steel tanks allow installation flexibility that surpasses steel or concrete tanks.
They are available in sizes ranging from gallons to over 2 million gallons, and they can be customized to fit the allocated installation space. For narrow areas, the tank can build taller, and in wider areas, the width can increase. Bolted tanks can be built over a grade band foundation, a concrete ring wall or a full concrete slab, depending on the project requirements and local regulations.
Bolted tanks require minimal maintenance and last longer than welded steel or concrete tanks, and should a gasket ever leak, a panel corrode or an accessory such as a valve or door need to be repaired, the damaged part can easily be unbolted and repaired or replaced.
Concrete and steel tanks need regular maintenance, including frequent resealing to prevent leaks or corrosion. They are also difficult to repair, requiring extensive labor and special tools to pour new concrete or to cut, weld and refinish a steel tank, which can lead to high material and labor costs.
Because bolted tanks shipped disassembled, they are more compact to transport than the large sections of a welded tank, reducing shipping costs.
Compared to the materials required for a concrete tank, shipping costs are much lower for bolted tanks as well, because they are relatively light compared to concrete.
As bolted tanks are transported and disassembled, they are more compact to transport than large sections of a welded tank, reducing transport costs. Compared to the materials needed for a concrete tank, shipping costs are also much lower for bolted tanks, because they are relatively light compared to concrete.
Bolted tanks are a cost-effective, durable and low-maintenance alternative to both welded steel and concrete tanks.
Bolted steel tanks can be manufactured in a wide variety of capacities, ranging from a few thousand gallons to over 1 million gallons.
They can be custom designed to fit your particular application, with varying widths, heights, and other characteristics. In areas where space is limited, the tanks can be made tall and narrow for a smaller footprint, or they can made wider where vertical space is constrained.
The design options for bolted tanks are practically limitless and can allow for great flexibility in demanding applications.
Steel tanks are made from individual sections that formed, welded and finished at a controlled manufacturing facility, using high-quality carbon, galvanized or stainless steel that meets applicable ASTM and API requirements.
Carbon steel sections receive a durable epoxy powder-coat finish that inhibits corrosion, resists electrochemical reactions and provides better coverage than the field-applied finishes common on welded steel tanks. Each section is bolted together in the filed using the appropriate gasket material for the tank contents, such as EPDM rubber or Buna-N gaskets, along with fasteners made from carbon, galvanized or stainless steel.
For extra protection from contamination, leaks or corrosion, the fasteners can be capped or fully encapsulated with poly-based materials, or installed using neoprene washers. These features result in a tank that is extremely durable, with a long life cycle and minimal maintenance.
Bolted steel tanks can offer significant cost savings for many applications because they are quick to install, require minimal maintenance and are easy to repair.
Over their complete life cycles, concrete and field-welded steel tanks can be expensive to install, maintain and repair. They often have a longer life cycle than competing designs, and they require fewer labor expenditures for maintenance and repairs.
They are a cost-effective storage solution and offer a quick return on investment.
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With bolted steel tanks, new tanks can be added with minimal time and effort, thanks to the quick installation process. Should the need for more capacity arise in the future, bolted tanks can also easily expanded with a minimum investment of materials and labor.
This is unlike concrete or welded steel tanks, which would require considerable amounts of time, materials, and labor to either expand an existing tank or build a secondary tank. Because bolted tanks are built with modular panels, it simply requires more panels and the time and effort required to reconfigure and expand the existing tank.
With concrete or welded steel tanks, if your capacity needs increase, often the only cost-effective option is to add additional tanks. Expanding or replacing the current tanks may not be feasible or may require too much labor. In many cases, it is also possible to expand the existing tanks, simply by adding additional sections. This minimizes the extra costs involved for labor and materials and reduces the amount of space required and the downtime associated with the project.
With bolted steel tanks, much of the manufacturing is done off-site. Once the components arrive at the installation site, the assembly process is quick and efficient, requiring a minimal amount of time and fewer labor costs.
If a section begins leaking, hardware deteriorates, a gasket fails or an accessory malfunctions, the affected section can be disassembled and replaced, without cutting, welding or labor-intensive concrete work. This minimizes labor and maintenance costs and leads to a storage solution with a far longer life cycle.
Because of the nature of the process, the installation of concrete and welded tanks are often subject to delays during inclement weather, increasing downtime and potential costs. And the installation process happens on-site, requiring large amounts of skilled labor and plenty of time.
The process can be completed in nearly any type of weather, reducing delays, and it allows the tank to be used almost immediately after completion, minimizing downtime. With proper preparation, bolted steel tanks can installed in a matter of days.
These are 10 of the advantages of bolted tanks over both concrete and welded ones.
When buying a water storage tank, the configuration and selection process often is something that needs to be done in the early stages of project design. To apply for and secure funding that may be available, timing of construction and overall project costs will play a factor in the determination. Because many municipalities have a single source of water storage, the tank design plays a crucial role in meeting the current and future needs of a community.
Some of the key details essential to the ultimate selection of the tank configuration process are an assessment of community demands for current and anticipated water supply, site conditions, pressure requirements, long-term maintenance, ease of access and overall costs.
There are three types of liquid storage tanks available that are considered for municipal water storage applications: glass-coated bolted steel, welded painted steel and concrete.
1. Design & Configurations
Standpipes, reservoirs and composite elevated tank (CET) designs are the different types of configurations used when selecting glass-coated bolted steel tanks. Standpipes are tanks where the water is elevated in a tall column to achieve gravity-fed pressure, which is required to properly feed the system. The tank height is greater than the tank diameter. The elevation of the water is accomplished by storing the required 'water on top of water.' Standpipe height usually does not exceed 140 ft.
The most common configuration used for water storage is the reservoir. Reservoirs have a greater diameter than height and can be used with a pumping system or can be gravity fed. The width of these tanks can reach 250 ft with capacities up to 6 million gal. Similar to standpipes, the CET design is used in applications where height is used to achieve the head pressure needed to properly operate the system. The CET column is constructed in a hollow concrete pedestal on which the tank is then built. Structural rebar and steel embedded in the concrete reinforced walls that can exceed 10 in. thick and a top cap of concrete 4 ft thick.
There is plenty of space offered in the interior of the concrete pedestal for municipal maintenance equipment, pump stations, office space and other uses. The CET design does not have height restrictions and capacity can be as great as 1.5 million gal.
Depending on the diameter, snow loads and other factors, the roof of glass-bolted tanks can vary. They can be a free-span aluminum geodesic dome, consisting of panels mounted on a rigid structural frame, or the same glass-fused-to-steel material.
The tank floors usually are constructed with reinforced concrete or they can be glass-coated panels depending on site and design conditions.
2. Manufacturing Process
The technology and manufacturing process of this equipment sets these tanks apart from painted steel or concrete structures. When using the factory manufacturing process, the uncontrolled variables are eliminated, unlike field manufactured products such as painted steel or concrete tanks. Worker experience and extreme climatic environmental conditions that are proven to have a significant effect on in-field manufactured products have minimal effect on the glassing process. In addition, the tanks can be erected year-round as the manufacturing is completed in the factory and only the assembly of the components is required in the field.
3. Coating
All storage tanks have a coating. The coatings available today consist of either paint, concrete or glass. The impermeability and features of glass offer advantages.
The glass coating process begins with a glass frit that is mixed with other minerals and water to create a liquid slurry. This glass slurry is then robotically sprayed at precise amounts and thicknesses onto previously cut and rolled, punched, grit-blasted and cleaned steel sheet panels. Companies like CST run panels through a furnace at ° F. This heat melts the silica glass slip into the surface of the grit- blasted steel. This completes the mechanical bond, as well as the chemical bond between the steel and the silica glass.
Different coatings that are available for other tanks rely on a mechanical bond of the coating to the underlying material. The chemical bond strength is many times the holding strength of the conventional mechanical bond and prevents any undercutting of the coating, which can allow spreading of corrosion on the primary steel material. This benefit can best be explained by imagining a scratch on an automobile. Because that coating only has a mechanical bond, if the steel is exposed, corrosion will occur. Left untreated this corrosion will expand and creep beneath the surrounding painted surface and compromise the remaining coating.
This often is witnessed with raised bubbles, spreading rust and weakened substrate. The chemical bond of the glass-fused-to-steel coating prevents this spreading of corrosion in the event the coating were compromised.
With the goal of making the storage tanks as maintenance free as possible, companies like CST manufacture rounded sheet edges to exact radii to ensure adherence of the glass for complete encapsulation on all four sides of the sheet.
4. Tank Construction
A jacking system is used when erecting a glass-coated bolted steel storage tank. Once the starter sheet (bottom ring) is either embedded into the concrete foundation or constructed utilizing a glass-fused-to-steel floor design, the top ring of the tank is constructed on the jacks. The roof of the tank then is erected and the ring and roof are jacked up. Each additional ring is then assembled below the top ring by bolting the sheets together and applying a urethane sealant between the seams.
Tanks are assembled from the top down allowing for a safer and faster construction environment. The erection process normally is completed within a week or two, which saves costs to the owner if prevailing wages for onsite labor are being used. Additionally, the manufacturer requires that all building crews be factory-trained and certified in the erection process, ensuring quality control in the field.
5. Maintenance/Life Time Value
Glass-coated bolted steel tanks have a long lifetime. Glass coating never needs painting because it is permanent. Glass-coated tanks often are placed in areas, where long-term pleasing visual appearance is sought. The budgeted dollars that may be used to repaint a painted tank or repair aged concrete can be saved and funneled to other projects in a municipality.
6. Flexibility
The bolted design and erection of this product yields flexibility. Because manufacturing is completed in a factory, large staging areas needed when a product is manufactured onsite are eliminated. The construction of the tank typically can be completed with a cleared area of roughly 6 to 10 ft around the tank diameter. This small footprint can save thousands of dollars on the overall project beyond the price of the tank itself. The panels themselves can be hand-carried and easily assembled without cranes or special equipment, allowing this tank to be installed in many locations that would be impossible for other tank types.
7. Expandability
The glass-coated bolted tank design allows the tanks to be vertically expanded. If a community or industry experiences growth and additional capacity is necessary, the tanks' jacking process allows the end-user to gain capacity quickly and cost-effectively. The factory-trained professional building crew unbolts the bottom ring from the original starter sheet, jacks the tank up and adds the number of rings necessary to achieve the new capacity. When these tanks are expanded, there is no difference in appearance between the original panels and the new panels.
Conclusion
Initial construction costs, anticipated life and long-term maintenance costs are significant factors relative to the various tank designs and materials available today. The long-term maintenance costs and life cycle during a tank evaluation all must be considered when selecting the appropriate product for a specific project.
Because project financing can vary depending on several factors, a complete analysis of initial costs and, lower maintenance should help a community decide which type of product is best suited for its needs.
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