Field notes

What we've learned shipping industrial infrastructure in Kenya.

Practical writing for operators, plant managers, and the engineering teams sizing the next install. Tank metallurgy, ETP compliance, instrument selection, IoT monitoring, and the parts of the work that don't fit in a spec sheet.

Earlier posts
Galvanised structural steel pipe rack at a Kenyan industrial plant
26 May 20266 min

Structural fabrication in Nairobi: pipe racks, tank supports, walkways

Tanks and silos don't stand alone. The platforms, racks, and supports around them are usually the load-bearing schedule risk. Here is how we approach the rest of the steel.

StructuralWorkshop
Polished stainless steel processing tank inside a Kenyan F&B plant
26 May 20267 min

How to specify a stainless tank for a Kenyan F&B plant

Material grade, surface finish, sanitary fittings, and the questions your fabricator wishes you'd ask first.

TanksFood & Beverage
Outdoor effluent treatment plant clarifier with surface ripple at a Kenyan factory
22 May 20269 min

Reading the NEMA discharge parameters table, for plants that need to pass

The 10 parameters that decide whether your effluent enters a public sewer or an environmental discharge route, what each one means, and what equipment hits each target.

ETPCompliance
Side-by-side comparison of zinc-alum and carbon-steel tank construction
19 May 20266 min

Zinc-alum vs carbon steel: the 30-year math, for Kenyan operators

Initial cost is rarely the right way to spec a water tank. Here is the lifecycle math that decides why our larger water-storage installs land in zinc-alum, not carbon.

TanksLifecycle
Remote NB-IoT gateway box mounted on a pole at a Kenyan tank site
15 May 20265 min

Safaricom NB-IoT for industrial tank monitoring in Kenya

The connectivity choice that actually works for low-bandwidth, multi-year-battery tank monitoring across Kenya, and why we recommend it as the default for single-tank sites.

IoTMonitoring
TIG welder mid-strike on a polished stainless steel tank seam
10 May 20266 min

Inside the workshop: what TIG-welding a stainless tank actually looks like

A walk through the welding bay, the argon backing setup, the dye-penetrant test station, and the difference a calibrated argon flow rate makes to a finished seam.

WorkshopProcess