Storage vessel

• US 4,603,525 A
• Filed: 07/25/1983
• Issued: 08/05/1986
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/1983
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: 804467 Ontario Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Crophandling Systems Limited
• Inventors: Byers, Stuart D., Clark, John F.
• Primary Examiner(s): NOT, DEFINED
• Assistant Examiner(s): NOT, DEFINED
• Application Number:
  US06/516,987
• Time in Patent Office: 1,107 Days
• Field of Search: 52/80, 52/192-197, 52/235, 52/245, 52/249, 52/261, 52/268, 52/269, 52/506, 52/518, 52/543, 52/584, 220/5 A, 220/75, 220/76, 220/79
• US Class Current: 52/245
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 90/023 Modular panels

Abstract

A storage tank, such as a water tower is disclosed, made by bolting rows of glass-coated steel plates together. The plates overlap each other side to side and above and below. The contact with plates at the diagonal corners is not an overlapping contact but an abutment contact, and the lines of abutment contact are staggered row to row. This arrangement leads to a very efficient use of material, and to an inherently leak proof structure when the plates are arranged to form a double skin in the lower regions of the tower.

Claims

1. A cylindrical storage vessel for water and other fluids which create high hydrostatic pressures, comprising:

a vertical cylindrical wall having a thickness formed of a plurality of flangeless plates, each of substantially the same height, and each being substantially rectangular and having series of holes in margins which are contiguous with its respective upper margin, lower margin right-hand and left-hand edge margins edges; and

a horizontal foundation;

each of said plates having a lower portion and an upper portion, and an inner surface and an outer surface;

said storage vessel being assembled by fastening said plates together using headed fasteners passing through holes in at least two overlapping plates, in each instance;

where said vessel comprises a plurality of rows of plates, where each successive higher row of plates is placed so that at least a lower outer surface portion of each row contacts a higher inner surface portion of a next successive lower row of plates;

said vessel being so constructed that in its lower portion the wall thickness thereof comprises at least two thicknesses of said plates, where said plates are placed in the following manner;

a first row of plates is a lowermost row in said a lower portion of said vessel, there are a plurality of intermediate rows of plates in said lower portion of said vessel, and there is an uppermost row of plates in said lower portion of said vessel;

each of said plates in each intermediate row of plates is placed so that its upper inner surface is in surface-to-surface contact with at least the a lower half of the a lower outer surface of a next successive higher row of plates, and its lower outer surface is in surface-to-surface contact with at least an upper half and upper inner a next successive lower row of plates;

the left-hand and right-hand edges of each of said plates in each row of plates are marginally staggered with respect to the left-hand and right-hand edges of each of the plates in the next successive higher and lower rows of plates, respectively;

so that for each row of plates the upper portion of the right-hand edge of each plate thereof is in edge-to-edge contact with the lower portion of the left-hand edge of a plate in the next successive higher row of plates;

and in said lower portion of said vessel, from the upper margin of said lowermost row of plates to the lower margin of said uppermost row of plates in said lower portion of said vessel, the successive rows of plates are so placed that there are three thicknesses of plates at each the upper margin of a first lower row of plates;

comprising said upper margin, an intermediate portion of the first next successive higher row of plates, and the lower margin of the second next successive higher row of plates;

where said fasteners pass through said series of holes in said upper margin of the first lower row of plates, and thence through a series of holes in the intermediate portion of the first next successive higher row of plates, and thence through said series of holes in said lower margin of said second next successive higher row of plates; and

also through the series of holes at the right-hand and left-hand margins of said plates, and such additional holes near the right-hand and left-hand margins in the upper and lower portions thereof as are necessary to accommodate said fasteners passing through said three thicknesses of plates at said margins;

and where the wall of said vessel in its upper portion above said lower portion comprises only a single thickness of plates except where the marginal edges of the plates in any one row marginally overlap the edges of the next contiguous plates in that same row, and where the upper margins of the plates in any one row marginally overlap the bottom margins of the plates in the next successive higher row of plates.