Recently, Crow was hired by a client in the Northwest that wanted to replace an outdated planer mill. The client had identified a planer line located in the Southeast and hired Crow as the principal consulting engineer and the contractor responsible for disassembling, relocating, adapting, and installing this system in their facility. To accomplish the task, Crow divided the project into several phases.
First Crow was onsite at the seller’s facility in Alabama for several weeks to coordinate and control the equipment’s takedown and tagging all pieces to put them back together in their new location. Crow carefully identified all of the electrical components for reuse to save the client money during the process’s installation. Crow coordinated the packing and shipping of every component and system removed.
SecondOnce the system was relocated into the new facility, Crow worked with the client and all vendors to determine possible upgrades and modifications of the components to increase the efficiency and output at the new mill. Crow deployed one of our 3D specialists to take pictures at the new location. The 3D images ensured Crow and Crow’s clients would have the most accurate data needed to complete the installation. These images were used to design the mechanical, structural, and electrical layouts needed for the installation. The 3D images’ accuracy greatly reduced Crow’s design time and the mill’s downtime during the installation.
ThirdElectrically, Crow had to add a new motor control center (MCC) room with 2 new MCCs and did the layout drawings to show the motor and device locations for the control system. Single lines were created for the new MCC, and a complete set of control drawings were created to show termination points in the PLC enclosures for each field device. Crow provided layout and connection drawings for each operator console as well as the field mounted junction boxes. Network drawings were created for the new frequency drives and encoders that are controlled through Ethernet.
HOW WE DELIVER ON TIME AND ON BUDGET
Crow’s team was in constant communication with the client’s team (project manager, and mill personnel) reviewing options, and cost estimates before proposing the best solution.
Crow’s involvement, also, included:
- Soil studies
- Foundation designs
- Piling designs
- Existing building modifications
- Mechanical adaptation of existing and new equipment
Crow recommendations included the design for a future expansion and increase of the planer capacity because we recognized that this area would become a bottleneck once production increases. Crow managed the entire project from shutdown to installation to full production.
Crow’s clients are very confident in our ability to deliver high quality services and solutions. This allows our clients the luxury to leverage us as their single source engineering company of choice. This results in lower engineering cost for our clients because Crow already has the skilled personnel for each discipline, rather than waiting on other firms that leverage outsourced or contract labor to support each phase throughout the engagement. Customers have one point of contact to deal with for the entire project, and when changes are requested Crow is able to quickly pull our greatest assets, our team members to make key decisions and resolve issues in house.
