What to Include When You Request a Fiberglass Tank Quote From a Manufacturer

A one-line email reading “Need a quote, 8,000 gallon fiberglass tank, sulfuric acid” goes out to three fiberglass tank manufacturers. Three quotes come back, and not one of them is the same. One assumed 93% indoor acid. Another assumed dilution outside. The third added a margin for all the unknowns. Purchasing ends up comparing three different tanks without realizing it.

Every gap in your request gets filled in by the person giving the quote. Some assumptions drive the cost up. Others create a tank that could do a job you never asked for.

Here are 16 details to include with each request, along with the best answer, why it matters, and an example.

How an Incomplete Request Costs You Twice

Missing information costs twice. Before the order, rounds of clarifying questions slow the quote. After the order, a wrong assumption surfaces as a change order, a delay or a tank unsuited to its service. FRP tank manufacturers price risk, and an unclear request is pure risk. Knowing how resin, construction, and standards fit together helps, as our guide to fiberglass and FRP tanks explains.

1. Name the Exact Chemical

Use the IUPAC name of the chemical. Never use a trade name or a plant’s common name. “Bleach” covers both the weaker solution for family use and the stronger industrial-strength bleach that comes out of the building. Always attach the safety data sheet, if available.

2. Provide a Range, Not a Single Value

For the concentration, provide the lowest and highest percentages of a chemical that will be in a tank at any given time. The dilution, delivery tolerances, and process upsets can change the percentage in a tank. Resin selection is based on the high side of the range.

Example: 28% to 36% concentrated hydrochloric acid.

3. What is the Operating Temperature?

Specify the normal operating temperature and the highest temperature that a tank will be subjected to. Include hot deliveries, exothermic reactions (mixing), and washdown water temperatures. A tank rated for 80 degrees F will fail if you routinely fill it with 140-degree water.

4. How Heavy Is Your Product?

Specific gravity determines wall thickness. For example, ferric chloride solution has a specific gravity near 1.4, and the lower shell will withstand approximately 40% more pressure than a water tank of the same height. When the specific gravity varies with concentration, use the highest value.

5. Working Capacity Versus Total Capacity

Working capacity is what the tank can hold, while total capacity includes headroom for vents, level instruments, and foam. 

If you specify “5,000 gallons,” the manufacturer won’t know which capacity you mean, so be sure to identify the number.

6. Measure the Space, Then Look Up

Measure the available space and height. Doors, pipe racks, the height a crane can reach, and roof beams will determine the size of the tank. Inside a building, a single overhead beam often limits height.

7. Vertical or Horizontal, and What the Tank Sits On

Will it be a vertical or horizontal tank? On a flat pad or legs? Will it have a cone or dish bottom? Belding Tank Technologies Inc. manufactures vertical and horizontal tanks with flat, cone, dish, and sloped bottoms. Tell the manufacturer what configuration your process requires and why, for example, complete drainage or limited headroom.

8. Nozzle Schedule With Sizes, Positions and Ratings

List each connection with its size and flange type and rating, plus elevation, orientation and purpose. A simple table or marked-up sketch is usually sufficient. (Nozzles added after fabrication can be costly and time-consuming.)

9. Manways, Ladders and Platforms

Indicate manway size, quantity, and location, plus need for ladders or platforms. Consider potential use and personnel access. Ladders and platforms are among the tank accessories that improve site safety.

10. Pressure and Vacuum Conditions

Atmospheric pressure is standard for most storage tanks. Indicate this in writing, or give the design pressure and vacuum if they are not atmospheric. Note nitrogen blanketing, vapor recovery or closed vent systems, as these affect design.

11. Anything Mixing, Stirring or Bubbling Inside

Agitators can add torque, vibration, and dead weight on the roof or wall. Specify the make, model, horsepower and mounting method of the mixer. Air or steam sparging can impose additional dead loads and heating requirements – give details.

12. Site Wind, Seismic and Snow Data

Give the site address (or approximate latitude and longitude), or provide the design wind speed, seismic parameters, and roof snow load from your engineer. A cylindrical tank on an open coastal site will have different loading requirements than one inside a heated building. Those loads also shape anchoring and other fiberglass tank installation requirements.

13. How Leaks Get Contained

Indicate whether the tank should be located in a dike, double wall construction, or some other form of containment. Belding Tank Technologies Inc. offers double-wall tanks as standard.

14. Insulation and Heat for Cold Sites

Specify the product’s lowest operating temperature and the site’s ambient temperatures so you can determine and incorporate proper insulation and heat maintenance into the tank design. Heat maintenance systems are available from Belding Tank Technologies Inc.

15. The Standards and Paperwork You Need

Specify applicable standards (ASTM D3299 or ASME RTP-1, for example) and any inspection, testing, or other documentation required by owners’ specifications (often found in an appendix). Incorporate this information into the request.

16. Gates, Wires and Crane Access

Specify access to the tank site including gate opening sizes, overhead obstructions, road restrictions and crane accessibility. Field-assembled tanks with filament-wound sidewalls offer an alternative way to transport and install large-diameter tanks when shop-assembled tanks cannot be transported or are not allowed on site.

Belding Tank Technologies Inc. can field-assemble tanks up to 100,000 gallons.

A Tank Quote Data Sheet You Can Reuse

Copy this form into your request and fill in every line you know. Mark unknowns as “to confirm” rather than leaving them blank.

Send a Complete Request and Get the Right Tank the First Time

A fiberglass tank manufacturer prices exactly what you describe. Send all 16 details, label every unknown, and the quotes you receive will describe the same tank.

Every unanswered question becomes either a cost buffer or a design guess. Fiberglass storage tank manufacturers do their best work with full information, and your schedule benefits when the first quote is the right one.

Copy the data sheet above, fill in what you know, flag what you don’t, and send it to Belding Tank Technologies Inc. through the Request a Quote page, at sales@beldingtank.com, or by phone at 800-253-4252 or 616-794-1130.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Fiberglass tank manufacturers |
• FRP tank manufacturers |