Save Energy With Air Curtains
Challenge
Cavernous manufacturing centers grapple with complexities — numerous staff, high traffic, inconsistent climate control, and ongoing pressure to create productive working environments to hit output goals month after month.The Campbell Soup Company, one of the largest international food companies with products in 120 countries, operates a sprawling, 2.4 million-sq.-ft. facility on a 949-acre parcel hugging the Maumee River in Ohio. The plant, recognized as Food Processing Magazine’s 2014 Green Plant of the Year, is a thermal processing powerhouse cranking out 107 million cases of soups, juices, beverages, and sauces annually.
With an array of exterior doors continually introducing outside air into the space, facility managers were deploying propeller-based fans in an attempt to create an air barrier to block the unwanted airflow responsible for drafts and shrinking productivity. The fans were doubly ineffective because they used excessive horsepower to produce a wide flow of unfocused air: the fans were simply spreading an unfocused blast of air using an excessive amount of energy.
The Solution
The Mars Air Systems air curtain solution was able to produce a precision air barrier with a concentrated blast of air that used only three (3) total horsepower versus the excessive 15 hp of the old collection of fans.With a proven ability to predictably and consistently stop air transfer and an energy consumption a fifth the size of the fans, the Mars solution consumes the energy equivalency of one standard metal parking light with a 1500-watt metal halide bulb operating for one hour. The doorway-affixed air curtain also completely eliminated the view obstruction of the fans.
STUDIES REVEAL A 6%-9% POSITIVE EFFECT ON WORK PERFORMANCE BASED ON IMPROVED AIR QUALITY AND TEMPERATURE. (WYON 2004)
PRODUCING NON-TRADITIONAL SOLUTIONS
For high-value product manufacturers, controlling the plant environment and atmosphere within a narrow degree of variability means saving tens of thousands of dollars by eliminating defects.Both Subaru of America and a TW Fitting NA, LLC, a BMW-contractor, used the Mars Air Systems air curtain to deliver a superior non-traditional solution for their manufacturing challenges. The Mars Engineering team’s solution helped prepare the tires that TW Fitting NA prepares for BMW vehicles by suspending electrically-heated air curtains over the tire conveyor belt. The curtains heated the tires just enough to create a more pliable rubber and eliminate the splitting, beading, and rim damage which had occurred with the colder rubber. The Mars solution also helped to lower energy costs by eliminating the need for an energy-gulping and unwieldy liquid-propane solution. Similarly, when Subaru needed near-pristine atmospheric conditions for their paint booths, Mars air curtains were installed in the hallway paint room entryway to act as a five-stage “air shower” for workers. Using the sequence of units, the Mars team was able to virtually eliminate dust and hair from the worker’s clothing so particles could no longer mar the painted finish.
TOP CHAINS ORDER UP PEAK PERFORMERS
While a Health Department code may prescribe air curtains to create cleaner, pest-free food prep areas, the real mandate comes from patrons.Creating a pest-free space with evenly–distributed conditioned air does more than give guests the impression of cleanliness, it’s actually a building block to designing a truly hygienic venue. Food poisoning is directly linked to flies who carry pathogenic organisms that cause E. coli, salmonella, and shingles and introduce other bacteria. Working hand-in-hand with the sanitation protocols you already have, Mars Air Systems’ air curtains above entry doors, pass through windows, and back receiving doors become silent sentries that seize control to keep out the uninvited. We’ve been doing that for over 50 years for iconic hospitality brands such as Panda Express, In-N-Out Burger, Taco Bell, Subway, and Olive Garden as well as growing up-and-comers like Smashburger and Five Guys Burgers. Whether you need a recessed unit that blends seamlessly with a well-defined décor, or defense against brutal weather conditions (hot or cold), or vigorous defense for food storage areas, Mars products have been the solution of choice for the most demanding operators world-wide.
PUTTING THE SKIDS ON SLIPPERY
Campbell Soup Company, one of the largest food companies in the world, operates a sprawling, 2.4 million-sq.-ft. facility on a 949-acre parcel, which includes operating a cooler/freezer storage unit 24 hours/day alongside a 8’x16’ heavily trafficked forklift entrance with a fast-acting vertical-lift door. The hot, humid warehouse conditions collide with the cold, dry-storage area air which produces condensation and pools of water at the base of the freezer -- both inside and out. Pooled water also flows from the freezer opening directly into the walkways, interfering with both foot and forklift traffic. The Mars engineering team identified the precise area that needed an air stream to eliminate condensation, then installed a stack of vertically-mounted, door-activated air curtains and air diffusers* at the cold storage unit’s forklift entrance. The air curtain’s forced-air action stabilized cold area temperatures by creating an air seal which effectively evaporated most of the surface condensation, while also eliminating pools of water in the walkway.
TOO MANY PEOPLE NEED US – IT HAS TO BE RIGHT
When you’re as successful as Westmoreland County Food Bank, you serve 7,200 families a month and operate a 40,000 sq.ft. facility that processes 8.6 million pounds of food a year - and your food storage equipment needs to work flawlessly. For Westmoreland, facility limitations forced the freezer and evaporator to sit side-by-side, which caused excessive humidity that led to ice and frost on the floor outside the freezer doorway – a safety hazard for both forklifts and workers on foot. When it’s too important or costly to be anything other than right, Mars Air Systems is the team you want on your side. Mars has been repeatedly the source for answers when large industrial and foodservice operators need no-fail solutions to vexing humidity, unwanted condensation, or hazardous pools of water. Deploying air baffles along side the series of air curtains gave the Westmoreland workers the means to ward off the flowing water that had been a source of slippage, falls, and worker injury.