Isolatek

Fire-Proofing Manufacturing Plant EI Associates (EIA) recently assisted Isolatek in the site selection, feasibility study, detailed design and construction of a new manufacturing operation within an existing 66,000 sq.ft. industrial facility located in San Bernardino, CA. As a turnkey, Design/Build approach, EIA identified and assessed several candidate sites, provided facility selection recommendations and provided the design of all manufacturing and process systems, as well as essential support facilities, site development, utility requirements and environmental control equipment. To accelerate the project schedule, EIA Constructors, Inc. was involved during all site selection and design phase efforts and recently completed the construction of $6M of improvements.

The client’s process involved the use of dry mix raw materials which, through the use of a screw conveyor, are blended and conveyed to an automatic filling and packaging operation. The ingredients are delivered to the screw conveyor by individual feeders whose feed rates are controlled by a master recipe in a process computer. The materials are delivered to the feeders by a combination of pneumatic conveying, totes and bulk bags. At all transfer points, the environment is protected by a series of individual vent filters and negative pressure provided by a dust collector blower. All fugitive dust is cleaned through a general area dust collector.

To meet Southern California’s stringent air quality regulations, EI designed a custom dust collector & HEPA filter exhaust system to reduce the particulates to less than ½ pound per day which is below California’s minimum emission requirement. Above the ½ pound per day offset credits must be purchased to satisfy the SCAQMD requirements. The cost of the additional filtration equipment is estimated to be approximately $125,000. The resultant system will avoid the requirement for annual exhaust air inspections and over $1,000,000 of particulate emission credits. The innovative filtration system design results in a net saving to our client. Clean air and reduced costs….truly a winning combination!