Stainless Steel Tank & Equipment Design

Tank engineering & design services

SFI allocates significant resources to engineering and design because every tank we build is completely custom and engineered from scratch.

Our Engineering Department consists of 12 people with an average of 20 years of experience per person. We employ two Professional Engineers, a Mechanical Engineer and nine skilled Designers capable of tackling a wide variety of equipment designs and configurations. All engineering personnel are proficient using the current version of AutoCAD, as well as a variety of other design-related software.

In-House Design Capabilities

Stainless Fabrication has in-house capabilities to perform all aspects of vessel design.  From large field fabricated tanks down to small intricate pharmaceutical vessels, SFI personnel have the expertise to design vessels to meet customer needs. For example:

• Stainless steel tanks and vessels of varying sizes and applications
• Internal and external pressures
• Agitation systems
• Heat transfer systems and fluid flow calculations
• Structural design of supports
• CIP systems
• Environmental loadings imposed such as snow, wind and seismic loads

SFI value-added engineering supports customers, SFI Regional Managers and production by providing high quality equipment documentation including but not limited to:

• Conceptual sketches, assembly drawings and full detailed approval drawings and revisions
• Code/Structural, Heat Transfer and Agitation calculations
• Bills of material and cut sheets
• Patterns

Drawings and approvals

Lead-time for approval drawings is typically two weeks depending on complexity of design, information available, workload, etc.

Our Prebuy Program is a value-added service offered to customers to improve production lead-time by allowing us to order major materials prior to completion of the approval drawing phase. 

When requested, "As Built" drawings are provided after project completion and will incorporate any changes that were made during production.

When required, PE stamped drawings and calculations are done in-house for most states.

Tank design begins at the quote stage

The majority of our tank projects go to Engineering prior to estimating and developing a proposal.  Having vessels reviewed and sized by an Engineer early on in the process means we are able to bid the project the way it should be built, right from the start.

Tanks are designed with customer specs and requirements in mind, as well as design standards including:

• ASME
• API 650 and API 620
• UL-142

and more…

We utilize a variety of software for analysis and design.  

• AutoCAD
• Inventor for 3D renderings
• MathCAD
• Compress
• Basic in-house structural FEA
• Microsoft Office products

Certifications

SFI utilizes various standards to ensure your product is built to the highest quality possible. 

We hold the following certificates:

• ASME “U” certification
• National Board “R” certification

Other standards are utilized as required, such as:

• API 620 & 650
• ASME BPE Guidelines
• Canadian Registration Number (CRN) documentation
• Ministry of Manpower-Singapore (MOM) documentation
• PED (European Pressure Equipment Directive) “CE” Mark
• UL-142
• USDA