Brock M-Series™ Million-Bushel Capacity Grain Bin Featured at Frontier Cooperative David City Open House Celebration

MILFORD, Ind., August 17, 2010 – America’s largest volume corrugated steel grain bin with a free-span roof will be featured in an open house celebration August 26 at Frontier Cooperative in David City, Nebraska. The galvanized steel grain bin measures 156 feet (47.5 m) in diameter with an eave height of 70 feet (21.3 m) and an overall height of 112 feet (34.1 m). The Brock M-Series™ Bin has a storage capacity of 1.34 million bushels of grain.

Manufactured by Brock Grain Systems in Milford, Indiana, the bin is one of two identical grain bins Frontier contracted with Mid-States Millwright and Builders Inc. of Nevada, Iowa, for the bins and millwright work this summer. Lowe Construction, Crawfordsville, Indiana, provided the erection service for both bins. The second bin was constructed at the co-op’s Brainard, Nebraska, location.

Adding the two giant grain bins was a decision driven by Frontier Cooperative’s mission to be a customer-oriented, progressive and profitable member-owned cooperative, according to Randy Robeson, general manager of the co-op.

“The larger storage bins are a tool for helping us to get the grain under roof quickly, as well as giving us the ability to load it out fast when the time is right to take it to market,” Robeson noted. “With these large-capacity bins, we’re better able to match the speed and capacity needs of today’s producers who are counting on us to help them avoid grain spoiled in temporary storage during the harvest season.”  Frontier’s new M-Series™ Bins from Brock will hold nearly 1,400 semitruck loads of corn each or about 7,400 acres of corn per bin.

Last fall, Brock introduced its M-Series™ line of commercial grain storage bins featuring single bin capacities over a million bushels. The new M-Series™ line of BROCK® Bins is available in two diameters. The 156-foot diameter M-Series™ models have a storage range from 1.0 to 1.34 million bushels with a 50,000-pound (22,700-kg) roof peak load, while the 132-foot (40.2 m) diameter bin models offer single bin capacities ranging from 700,000 to 1.18 million bushels with a 40,000-pound (18,150-kg) roof peak load.  

In designing the new M-Series™ Bins, Brock’s 50-plus years of experience guided the development of a number of innovations.  These include:

• The M-Series™ Bins’ free-span roof structure that does not need to rely on center support towers.
• Brock’s new structurally superior SMOOTHCORR™ Sidewalls, which have a smooth interior coupled with a corrugated exterior surface.
• Brock’s FULL SWEEP® Bin Anchoring System that enables the use of a single-pass bin sweep system for getting grain safely out of the bin without the need for a front-end loader.

Free-Span Roof Structure
The Brock M-Series™ line’s free-span roof was engineered to handle temperature cables and ground snow loads up to 50 pounds per square foot while still maintaining the stated peak loads. The bins’ roof peak load capacity also supports the larger 40,000- and 50,000-bushel-per-hour conveyors needed for the higher grain flow rates the larger bins use without requiring extra reinforcement.  

Brock’s engineers designed the rafters, purlins and their connections to better handle the rigors of high peak-load demands coupled with snow and temperature cable loading. The new roof incorporates convenient temperature cable attachment locations built into the rafter system. The special rafter and purlin connections unite the roof structure in a way that more fully develops the strength of the roof to resist bending and to more efficiently handle unbalanced snow loads.

SMOOTHCORR™ Sidewalls
Another unique Brock feature for this family of larger bins is the SMOOTHCORR™ Bin Sidewall design. The outside of the sidewall body sheets features the typical narrow-corrugation bin sidewall.  However, instead of laminating or overlaying corrugated body sheets with one or two more corrugated body sheets as others have done, Brock’s SMOOTHCORR Sidewall System has attached a smooth-wall body sheet to the inside of the corrugated sidewall. The company has a patent pending on the SMOOTHCORR Wall design.

Brock’s exclusive SMOOTHCORR Sidewall construction approach provides a stronger overall body sheet with excellent wind resistance. The smooth inner sidewall surface allows grain to more easily flow down and out of the bin, reducing load stresses on the bin’s sidewall, stiffeners and footer. The air trapped in the corrugations between the two body sheets contributes insulation value to the sidewall which can help preserve grain quality.