by Rohde Brothers | Jan 22, 2024
Energy Conservation - Grande Cheese
“As we look forward to this cost savings over time we realized that we would have gone in the same expensive wasteful direction if we had not met with Rohde Brothers, Inc. The solution that they provided in two of our locations is exactly what we’d hoped for, and that is pretty challenging to come by in today’s business environment.”
Senior Facilities Engineer
In just 7 ½ months, Rohde redesigned, engineered and implemented an ammonia refrigeration system expansion, with integrated controls, using the existing infrastructure. The plan was to save the client’s capital in installing a much more effecient system that not ony uses less energy, but requires much less maintenance to operate between service oriented repairs. The design needed to be changed to reduced the amount of ammonia in the system while still providing the proper cooling needed for their cold storage facility. The benefit of lower pressure operations were felt by keeping the system out of the threshold of the EPA’s PSM Program, saving $30k in consulting fees.
Customized Solution:
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Rohde’s redesign eliminated the high-pressure receiver and significantly reduced the ammonia charge required in the system. Rohde’s design reduced it to 7,000 lbs. from the initial base bid of 14,000 lbs.
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Variable frequency drives on all components including the two new 150 HP compressors.
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Low discharge pressure design that allowed the system to run at much lower pressure in the cooler months.
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Redesign of all the expansion devices such that high pressure liquid was not required to get the liquid into the various evaporator coils.
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Eliminated the need to change relief valves every five years by redesigning to remove surge drums.
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Coil circuiting designed to carry oil back to the recirculation vessel to drain at a single point in the ammonia room rather than several points on the roof.
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Saved the client over 38% in electrical costs and significantly reduced maintenance and operating costs.
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Gas costs reduced by 5-10% with significant reduced maintenance costs.
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· Eliminated the need for a full Process Safety Management program (PSM) and $30,000 in consulting fees by reducing charge holds below EPA and OSHA thresholds.
by Rohde Brothers | Jan 16, 2024
Mercury Marine Utility Piping
“We (Mercury Marine) are continuously modifying and adding to our operations to accommodate new engine programs. Rohde Brothers, Inc. has provided design, engineering support and installation for many of these projects in our manufacturing and design facilities. In sever of the recent addition, Rohde Brothers, Inc…to provide entire mechanical systems integration packages and added their own value engineering to reduce installed cost and operating cost while enhancing our original performance expectations,”
Senior Facilities Engineer, Mercury Marine
Mercury Marine utilizes a central recirculated cooling water system for cooling components in their die casting plant. Without cooling water, components and equipment begin to overheat within minutes. As Mercury prepared for long-term growth of the die casting operations, the need for upgrading the recirculated cooling water system became critical. The cooling towers were maintained well by Mercury Marine, but were operating many years beyond their rated life, and were showing signs of their age. The original system was expanded multiple times through the decades, with multiple supply and return lines in each of the utility tunnels. Rohde worked closely with Mercury Marine to upgrade the system over a three year period with new cooling towers, pumps, controls, piping, and filtration equipment processing up to 2,330 gallons of water per minute. Changes in die casting technology required improved filtration to prevent plugging of die cavities and ineffective part cooling, which resulted in significant downtime, loss of productivity, and defective parts.
The Rohde team completed a sequenced rebuild of a plant-wide recirculated water cooling system for their aluminum die-casting operations, with no disruption to plant production. Water flow rates were reduced to allow for lower pumping energy costs and improved water quality, leading to reduced maintenance costs. The phased upgrade of the system started with replacement of one cooling tower in a temporary location. Sequential replacement of the entire network of supply and return piping for the system was started after the first cooling tower was replaced. Installing new piping while maintaining flow of water to the plant with highly congested utility tunnels required careful layout and review off every piping system within the plant. With the piping replaced and new cooling towers in place, planning for the permanent system installation started. The final phase of the project included replacement of the pumps and controls along with relocation of the cooling towers to a permanent location on the roof of the plant.
The Rohde Customized Solution:
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Replaced cooling towers sequentially first in temporary location and then final location to maintain plant operations
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Replaced recirculated cooling water piping in the tunnels serving more than 30 die cast machines
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Added and upgraded piping at die cast machines as individual cells were added or reconfigured
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Replaced the original side stream strainer with two full flow multi-bag filtration units.
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Allen-Bradley Micrologix control system integrated with the plant Factory Talk SCADA system
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Careful planning and coordination with plant operations to complete the installation without disruption of plant operations
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Ongoing monitoring and maintenance of the complete system to ensure peak efficiency and performance
by Rohde Brothers | Jan 16, 2024
Johnsonville USA - Ongoing Partnership
Since the construction of the Johnsonville plant in the early 1970’s, Rohde Brothers has worked with Johnsonville Sausage’s engineering department to support small and large projects throughout their multi-plant meat processing campus.
Rohde Brothers has embraced this partnership as an opportunity to bring value to the table and provide ingenuity in all solutions presented whether it be as small as a control program change of the corporate office HVAC systems, to process and waste water treatment plant installation and maintenance projects.
The Meadowside Plant Expansion is a great example of this partnership. Rohde completed the HVAC work for the 81,600 square foot expansion that included ventilation, controls and steam piping for new custom cook equipment.
Rohde maintains a presence with Johnsonville as a valued partner in their operations and maintenance programs.
The Rohde Customized Solution:
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Identified engineering and detailed application issues while maintaining effective communication and coordination with trades
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Created unique solutions that work as planned for custom cook equipment ventilation, installation of process ventilation, steam, and gas service to new production dual-spiral cook oven
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Executed work under tight deadlines, all while remaining ever-mindful of customer’s large scale plant shutdowns
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Installation of HVAC, electric controls (DDC hybrid), and high pressure steam piping for industrial process areas
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Installation of HVAC for engine room and hot water heater room additions
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Installation of stainless steel flues for CIP water heaters
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Installation of source capture carbon dioxide gas exhaust system for process blender equipment
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Ductwork in food production areas is all heli-arc welded stainless steel
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Design assistance, fabrication, and installation of process utilities to cook oven including high pressure steam service to spiral oven and freezer, natural gas service, flue gas piping to eight (8) industrial burners, and three (3) gravity stacks on the spiral oven, and combustion air ducting to spiral oven
by Rohde Brothers | Jan 16, 2024
Waste Heat Recovery - Geothermal Pond Loop
Using 3D modeling and FEA, Rohde has designed and installed various geothermal pond loop systems to provide heating and cooling. Our innovative approach allows us to capture waste process heat to reduce maintenance and operating costs associated with steam generators, high pressure hot water systems, and cooling towers.
Geothermal Process Equipment
The Rohde Customized Solution:
- Patent pending undersized pond system to eliminate need for expensive vertical wells
- Combine process cooling loops with geothermal loop to allow beneficial reuse of waste process heat from air compressors, refrigeration compressors and hydraulic systems
- Waste heat utilized with heat pumps for comfort heating, sanitation, and process heating
- Geothermal loop provides cooling for excess heat minimizing the need for cooling towers
- Skid-mounted pump systems pre-piped and pre-wired with controls to reduce cost and time of installation
- Web-based Honeywell Tridium control system to provide graphical user interface over the Allen-Bradley PLC system
by Rohde Brothers | Jan 16, 2024
Mercury Marine - Plant 4 and 17 Expansion
Mercury Marine’s Plant 4 needed to add several machining centers to improve productivity while utilizing the same building footprint.
Rohde also included an on-site nitrogen generation system to blanket our die-cast process which saved us money from the start”
~David Hahn, Project Manager, Mercury Marine.
“Rohde Brothers, Inc. worked closely with mercury to install acetylene piping, coolant piping, gas piping, Glycol piping for machine centers, and HVAC in both plant 4 and 17.
The Rohde Customized Solution:
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Design, fabrication and installation of HVAC in the machine centers area of the plant 17 expansion.
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Design and installation of on-site nitrogen gas generators for the die-cast facitility. Lowering costs substantially compared to storage, handling and processing of liquid nitrogen.
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Floor sweep HVAC to contribute to higher air quality in the die cast facility as well as machine centers area.
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Variable speed makeup air and exhaust fans added as needed for the expansion.
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Custom PLC for monitoring and control of the HVAC, nitrogen, and process piping.
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Installation of make up air units to supply fresh filtered air back into the facility
