Project Files: Episode 37 — LEED Gold Sheet Metal Facility Retrofit
New automated fabrication process cuts production lead time up to 40%
In 2017, RenewAire moved into a 110,000-square-foot building and retrofitted it as one of the nation’s few LEED Gold-certified industrial facilities. Now the manufacturer has completed an eight-month-long, multi-million dollar investment: automating its sheet metal fabrication process. The new equipment features a Salvagnini SL4 laser-punch, B3 press brake, and P4 panel bender. It reduces manufacturing critical-path time, saves space and energy, cuts production lead time up to 40%, and trims material waste.
The towers’ strategic positioning with the equipment sequential configuration combine for a time-saving fabrication production line. RenewAire’s investment into an optional automated tool assistance add-on that eliminates labor-intensive, hands-on B3 re-tooling setups. The towers’ sheet metal inventory is conveyed 120 linear feet through the pre-programmed laser cutter, conveyance/part manipulation system, and panel bending equipment — all of which is automated.
Previously, lead times on RenewAire’s ERV and DOAS sheet metal cabinetry, base infrastructures, and component fabrication were prolonged up to two weeks and dependent upon the schedules of a variety of locally contracted vendor outsources. Now the new vertical integration, operated in-house by two technicians per shift, has sped up component fabrication of most sheet metal parts to a matter of hours. In addition, automation has improved sheet metal bend precision to ±½-degree tolerance, versus manual bending tolerances of three degrees.
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