July 2018

88 89 field erected water and industrial storage tanks, steel water pipe, pressure vessels, and specialty steel products. Today, STI/SPFA develops industry standards and specifications, produces safety manuals, performs quality assurance inspections, provides training courses and issues certifications, and serves as a liaison to regulatory authorities. “STI was the standards writer,” says Geyer. “It started developing standards in the ‘50s. The first one was pretty simple, working with the oil compa- nies for underground tanks - to put the openings in a common pattern, so that they were universal- ly built.” The Association is identified by federal and state government, the broader steel industry, third-party agencies, and consumers as the organi- zation best representing the steel fabrication indus- try, and its standards and specifications are recog- nized by regulators as the best in the market. “We have different categories of fabricating members,” says Geyer. “There’s our shop-fabricat- ed fuel storage tank producers. A shop-fabricated tank means a tank that can be built in one piece in a fabrication shop, put on a truck, and shipped to a site in one piece. These can be underground tanks or aboveground tanks. Underground tanks, today, are typically at gas stations. Aboveground tanks could be for trucking fleets, fuel oil storage THE STEEL TANK INSTITUTE/STEEL PLATE FABRICATORS ASSOCIATION tanks, back-up generator fuel systems, and back-up power for industry. In case electric power goes out, an increasing number of companies have generators and they store the fuel in steel tanks. Some companies with a high internet presence cannot afford to lose power – ever. And with recent hurricanes, some States are mandating certain industries to have back-up power - for example service stations in Florida.” “Then, you have the field erect tank con- struction fabricators. They build municipal water towers, jet fuel and motor vehicle fuel storage terminals you might see near airports and pipe distribution locations,” Geyer contin- ues. “Then there are low pressure constructed tanks; we’re seeing a lot of those being built today for ammonia. They might be cryogen- ic for liquid nitrogen, or for storing oxygen at a couple of hundred degrees below zero