Grain Bin and Silo Safety

Anyone who needs to access grain bins and storage silos should have an overhead fall protection system in place. Grain bins are hazardous because of how they are operated and inspected. Between filling, emptying, and inspecting the materials inside of a storage silo, there are many dangers that await people who are working with grain silos. As a result, there are only a few ways that people can properly protect themselves from the dangers of a storage silo.

Here are the general* dangers of a grain bin/storage silo:
*Note: This is only a list of dangers in regards to fall protection and fall hazards around grain silos. This list does not include silo hazards that are not related to fall protection.*

Filling 
A farmer will typically need to monitor a silo blower and a forage wagon while they are filling a silo. During this process, farmers will need to be on top of the silo to open and close different doors and access hatches. While working with those different doors, people can be exposed to tall heights along with the dangers of working above loading machines and other equipment with exposed turbines. 

Inspecting and Maintaining 
When farmers are inspecting a grain silo, they need to access doors and hatches that can be located at a variety of different heights. This can be especially dangerous if they are also carrying testing equipment or tools during this process. 

Draining
A silo relies on a combination of an unloader and gravity to collect the materials from a silo. Generally, materials in a silo are run through an auger that connects to the unloader. When the unloader is running, there is a process known as “walking down the grain.” The process involves a farmer walking on top of the dry goods inside the silo to make sure that all of the materials drain evenly and without clogging the unloader system.

Protecting Workers from Silo Hazards
It’s clear that people who are working on (or in) a silo need to have some sort of fall protection. But, fall protection systems for silos have slightly different requirements than other industrial applications. Rigid Lifelines fall protection systems typically require system users to be attached to a self-retracting lanyard. Self-retracting lanyards are the preferred fall arrest device because they stop a worker’s movement during an abrupt, unintended loss of balance. However, the grain silo is a unique fall protection application.

With grain silos, energy absorbing lanyards are preferred over self-retracting lanyards where engulfment conditions exist. Since self-retracting lanyards require a certain amount of speed for the brakes to engage, this may be problematic when silo’s drain slowly. If the self-retracting lanyard does not lock up, this may result in worker engulfment in the material being drained.  Energy absorbing lanyards are fixed length and thus do not rely on speed to provide protection.

Just remember:

• Fall protection and fall arrest inside the silo requires the use of a shock absorbing, fixed-length lanyard.
• Fall protection for outside of a silo might benefit from the use of a self-retracting lanyard.
• Never work alone—always work with a buddy who can get help for a rescue.
• Suspension trauma relief straps are highly recommended for any silo applications.

Until the next time, stay safe up there!

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