ALUMINUM DOMES

ALUMINUM GEODESIC DOME ROOFS

Are used to cover storage tanks of up to 120m diameter in the petroleum industry.

They are usually used in refineries and tank farms, where both the storage product and the structural tank components must be protected from atmospheric and environmental influences.

The aluminum Dome is designed as a self-supporting dome roof whereby only its outer edge is connected to the tank shell around the outer rim. Central struts, which would have to pass through erected floating roofs or decks and would diminish the efficiency of the system, are no longer required.

This advanced constructional design results in an important reduction of evaporation loss.

The weight of an aluminum geodesic dome (approx. 60 m diameter) is only 10-15% of a comparable, self-supporting steel roof.

The system therefore offers a cost-optimised solution by saving the weight of the tank cover and is also suitable for the retrofitting of existing floating roof tanks, which are designed to function without a steel roof.

The storage product is thus completely protected from contamination by rainwater as a malfunctioning of the floating roof drainage system is eliminated. For new tanks, the light weight of the dome allows savings in expenditure for the foundations as well as the tank shell.  

All structural components of the dome are fabricated from highly-tensile aluminum alloys and possess excellent corrosion-resistant features, especially in an aggressive humid or saline atmosphere.

An additional protective coating is not required, even after decades of operation, as our aluminum constructions are designed to last as long as the tanks they are built on.

This has been confirmed in the course of numerous tests in coopera-tion with internationally accepted research institutes of the aluminum industry. These features are derived from our track record covering more than 100 years of aluminum production and processing as well as the continuous further development of the single structural components.