Flake Ice Storage Systems: Efficient Industrial Ice Buffering
Introduction: The Importance of Flake Ice Storage in Industrial Cooling
Industrial processes often rely on flake ice for its excellent cooling capacity and handling properties. But beyond ice production, proper storage and delivery of ice plays a key role in energy management and process stability. A flake ice storage system offers flexibility by decoupling ice generation from consumption. Ice can be produced during low-tariff energy hours and stored for peak demand periods – ensuring process continuity and energy savings.
What Is a Flake Ice Storage System? Structure and Operation
A flake ice storage system typically consists of a closed, insulated silo. Ice is fed in from the top via screw conveyors, gravity chutes or belts and is discharged from the bottom through a rotating screw. The system operates on the FIFO principle (First In – First Out) to ensure consistent ice quality.
Our flat-bottom discharge system ensures uniform, clog-free output and eliminates the need for manual ice shoveling. The discharged ice can be further processed or dosed precisely using weighing systems or feeders.
Benefits and Highlights
Time-independent ice production and use
No bridging or clumping, even during extended storage
Full automation reduces labor and improves hygiene
Easy installation via modular, segmented design
Use of low-energy hours for cost-optimized ice generation
High product quality through closed, stainless-steel systems
Construction and Transport Systems
The silos are available in vertical design with stainless-steel casing and optional insulation for outdoor use. Ice discharge is handled via a horizontal screw at the base, which avoids blockages. Depending on spatial constraints, the system can be designed for gravity-fed discharge directly into ice boxes, avoiding complex conveyor installations.
Materials and Manufacturing
All ice storage systems are built from high-grade stainless steel, fully enclosed and weld-sealed for food and pharma compliance. Optional thermal insulation enables outdoor operation in a wide range of climates. Modular construction ensures simple transport and on-site assembly, even for large capacities.
Typical Applications
Food industry: Cooling of fish, meat, vegetables, fruit
Pharma production: Process chilling and ingredient conditioning
Chemical sector: Cooling during batch processes
Concrete plants: Controlling concrete temperature in hot climates
Energy: Ice storage for load shifting and energy balancing
Technical Summary
| Feature | Specification |
| Capacity | 5–50 tons of flake ice per silo |
| Design | Closed vertical silo, modular and insulated |
| Material | Stainless steel, corrosion-resistant |
| Discharge System | Automated flat-bottom auger |
| Storage Principle | FIFO – First In, First Out |
| Ice Transfer Options | Screw conveyor, gravity chute, belt, direct drop |
| Cleanability | Hygienic, maintenance-friendly |
| Integration | Compatible with dosing and weighing systems |
Product description and general properties
Ice storage cost savings and flexibilities
Ice storage system facilities in addition to the pure production of flake ice, professional ice handling devices become increasingly important for the user. He has to deal with the fact that he is time-independent in the supply of ice and flexible by the ice storage remains. Ice must not be over-produced and stored so that it remains in the process of storage for too long. Favorable production costs on the one hand, but also the storage costs and the loss of quality of the ice on the other hand always have to be exactly evaluated. In this context, there are usually many logistical and historical questions regarding building extensions and conversions that have to be integrated in a customised manner.
Minimal use of conveyor technology, as it is very cost-intensive, but also smooth logistics from the initial ice production station to the processing and further processing stations must be guaranteed. Especially when using ice conveyor technology in the form of ice conveyor belts, it may look easy from the outside to get to the pick-up point with a few deflections, but it is precisely in the deflections of conveyor belts that the risk increases that the ice will jam in motion or clump together due to the pressure and be blocked by the conveyance of the following flake ice. All the way to a total standstill in the worst case. Ice can harden like stone as a result of pressure and temperature, as we all know. Experience is needed in the design of these systems.
Sometimes, however, one should take the simplified route of placing the flake ice making machine on an elevated frame, i.e. at height, to convey the ice into portable ice boxes underneath to avoid a complicated structure of ice conveyor belts. A little built in height, circumspection in a simple logistic the point of ice production and taking the ice from there to the next points of consumption. Because of the danger of rapid clumping, always keep the logistics as simple as possible. Complexity can quickly turn against reliability. The end customer wants constant and reliable logistics of ice delivery and this should be guaranteed as stable as possible. Our task is to recognise this functional requirement and solve it based on decades of experience.
Utilisation and added value of the product
Ice storage approach
The ice storage approach must be to supply the process with the necessary quantities of stored ice as needed. Thus to compensate for the current demand as well as specific demand peaks of the production process. Intermediate stored, because if necessary in the peak demand of the customer, more ice must be fed to the process necessarily. Ice machines have to produce according to their temporal and technical performance. It can also be that the customer is able to produce chip or plate ice in times of cheapest electricity tariffs and then to temporarily store this ice, in order to supply flexible to its production process.
Ice storage FIFO method
First in – First out
The filling of our ice storage facility from above can be done via conveyor belts, screws or slips connected to the ice machines. We use the FIFO method (First in – First out). The ice first produced chip ice leaves the ice storage first. It is important to preserve the quality and transportability (risk of freezing) of the ice in relation to subsequent processing steps. As self-contained ice storage silo (storage silo closed from all sides), contamination of the ice is prevented.
What is ice storage system?
How ice storage works in our BUCO Ice Storage Silo
Due to the stable discharge screw on the ground, problems of ice block formation and difficult transport from the ice storage silo are no longer present. The ice discharge is carried out via a rotating discharge screw. Our automated flat-bottom unloading system offers significant advantages over other common ice storage and unloading methods. The automated flat-bottom discharge reduces labor costs of manual ice discharge. Thus, the addition of ice can thus uniformly incorporated into the work process continuously-automatically supplied amount of ice. Any power-consuming and time-consuming manual shoveling or chopping the ice is eliminated. Dosing and weighing processes can be applied after the ice discharge.
Technical properties
Is this something we can tackle using Ice Storage Tanks?
Ice storage advantages
- First in – first out principle (minimum residence time of the produced ice) ice storage
- Easy assembly due to segmented structure
Ice Storage system specifications
- Ice storage silos in sizes from 5 to 50 to
- Completely made of stainless steel
- Insulations for outdoor installation optionally possible
Ice storage applications and benefits
- Ice storage flexibility in ice use whenever needed by the operation
- Ice remains transportable (does not freeze up) and high quality (closed system)
Areas of Application
- Concrete cooling
- Chemical processing
- Pharmaceutical processing
- Food cooling, such as the cooling of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit
Photos & examples
We have always assimilated engineering science and thermodynamics optimally in the various manufacturing processes.
Thermodynamicists,mechanical engineers and welding engineers define the dimensioning, design and construction of customised heat exchanger panels and systems in materials ranging from mild and austenitic steels through to titanium, and ensure successful distribution of their work worldwide.
In doing so they fall back on production engineering expertise and calculations developed in the course of the past hundred years that are still being continuously optimised in an ongoing process.
In the perception of our customers, the Buco product stands for:
Technical and process-oriented consulting
Thermodynamic efficiency
Quality and longevity
