Bespoke Plastic Drip Trays and Fabricated Bunds

When made-to-measure beats an off-the-shelf spill tray

Catalogue spill trays are made to suit a drum, not a plant room. The moment the footprint is irregular, the depth is restricted, or the tray has to slide under an existing skid, the standard range stops working. A fabricated tray is cut and welded to the dimensions actually measured on site.

• Awkward footprints — L-shapes, cut-outs around legs, columns and pipe stools
• Restricted headroom, where the tray has to fit under a pump baseplate or dosing skid
• Non-standard depths, because the volume is fixed but the plan area is not
• Chemical compatibility, where the contained liquid attacks the moulded material
• Drain-off points, sump wells and connections into a bunded drain or pumped return
• Forklift, pallet truck and drum-trolley access across the rim

Fabricated trays also allow the containment to follow the process rather than the other way round. That matters most in older buildings, where plant has been added over decades and there is no clear rectangle left to stand a tray in.

New trays and bunds only — existing structures are covered elsewhere

To be clear about scope: this page covers NEW fabricated drip trays and NEW plastic bunds built from sheet. It does not cover lining, sealing or repairing a bund, pit or containment structure that already exists in concrete, steel or brick.

If the containment is already built and the problem is that it leaks, weeps or is being attacked by the chemical it holds, the work is a lining job. That is covered on the tank linings page. Repairs to existing plastic vessels sit on plastic tank repair.

Materials: choosing between polypropylene and HDPE

We fabricate in polypropylene and PVC. Polypropylene is the usual starting point for containment work: broad resistance to acids, alkalis and many salt solutions, good weldability, and enough rigidity in thicker sheet to hold a large flat base without dishing. Where HDPE, PVC or another grade suits the duty better, that is worth discussing at the enquiry stage rather than assuming.

Material choice follows the chemical, its concentration and its temperature — all three, not just the name on the drum. Published resistance data is a guide, not a guarantee for a specific mixed effluent. The materials guide sets out how the common thermoplastics behave, and a free site consultation is the quickest way to settle the specification against what is actually being handled.

General guidance on sizing secondary containment

Published UK guidance on oil and chemical storage commonly refers to secondary containment sized at 110% of the largest single vessel, or 25% of the aggregate capacity of everything within the bund, whichever is greater. Whether those figures apply to your installation is a question for your own assessment of the site and the substances held. The 10% margin above the vessel volume allows for the liquid displaced by the vessel itself, for rainfall on outdoor bunds, and for the fact that a failure is rarely tidy.

Displacement is the part most often missed. Anything standing inside the bund — the tank feet, a pump plinth, a second vessel — takes up volume that is no longer available to hold a spill, so the internal plan area has to be worked out net of those obstructions.

This is general guidance only. It is not compliance advice, and Beckox does not certify a containment arrangement as compliant. Confirm the duty, the required capacity and the regulatory position that applies to the site with the relevant authority, insurer or a competent adviser, and we will fabricate to the figures that are agreed.

Features worth specifying

A tray is simple until it has to be emptied, lifted or walked on. Deciding those points before fabrication is far cheaper than modifying afterwards.

• A sump or low point so residue can be pumped or drawn off cleanly
• A valved drain-off point, kept locked shut, for controlled emptying
• Removable grating covers to give a working surface over the tray
• Upstands, kerbs and ramped edges where drums have to be wheeled in
• Reinforcement, ribbing or a supporting frame under wide flat bases
• Lifting lugs or fork pockets where the tray must be moved for cleaning
• Pipe penetrations sealed and welded rather than drilled and sealed later

Where the tray has to drain into a pumped return or a monitored sump, the connections and their controls are part of the same job — see pipework and controls.

Measuring and fabricating to an existing footprint

Most made-to-measure work starts with a visit. Drawings of a plant room installed twenty years ago rarely match what is on the floor, and a tray even slightly too wide is scrap. We take our own dimensions, note the obstructions, check the access route into the building, and then fabricate to those figures.

Sheet is cut, folded or welded, and the joints are fusion welded rather than glued, so the seam is the same material as the tray. Because design, fabrication and installation are all done in-house at the Poole works, a dimension that turns out to be wrong on site can be resolved by the people who made the item.

Where fabricated trays and bunds are used

Drip trays go wherever a small, slow loss is likely: under pump seals, filter housings, dosing pumps, sample points, decanting stations and IBC pallets. They keep a nuisance leak off the floor and out of the drain, and they make the leak visible before it becomes a spill.

Fabricated bunds do the larger job — holding the full contents of a vessel if it fails. They pair naturally with storage tanks and with process tanks and vats, and can be built as a freestanding plastic bund or as a tray that sits beneath a complete dosing or treatment skid.

Talk to us about a made-to-measure tray or bund

Beckox has fabricated in plastic in Poole since 1982 — design, fabrication and installation by the same team, for customers across process, water, pharmaceutical, marine and precision engineering. Site consultations are free, and taking dimensions in person is usually the quickest route to an accurate price and a tray made to the right size.

Call 01202 736 725 to arrange a visit, or send dimensions and the chemical duty through the contact page.

PAGE REVIEWED — 30 July 2026