Posts Tagged ‘controls engineering’

Why is UL 508A Certification Important?

Wednesday, March 17th, 2021

Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is the largest and best known independent, not-for-profit laboratory in the world that conducts safety and quality testing on a wide range of products. UL is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as an audited designator that can designate its standards as American National Standards.

UL 508A panel fabrication
Panel fabrication in Egan’s UL 508A Panel Shop

As the standard for industrial control panels, UL 508A certification demonstrates compliance to national safety standards – this certification ensures the proper design, assembly and wiring methods of components within the control panel. Having the UL 508A mark indicates that all requirements have been met and that the industrial control panel manufacturing facility is subject to inspection at any point to certify that standards (including the National Electric Code & NFPA 79) are being upheld. Electrical inspectors look for this mark as evidence of third-party certification.

For instance, at Egan Company, safety is our number one priority, and we are proud to carry several UL certifications. Our UL 508A Panel Shop designs and builds custom, industrial control panels for customers who depend on quality and system design expertise. With precision assembly, panels of all shapes and sizes come to life under UL code. Customers who rely on panels built at Egan include food & beverage producers, concrete producers, and many other industrial product manufacturers.

For customers, having this UL 508A certification means that Egan is furthering our promise to provide safe products.

Egan’s Panel Shop highlights:

  • 3 separate panel shops under 1 roof totaling 21,000 square-feet of manufacturing space
  • Steinhauer ModCenter – automated hole/cutout machine for enclosures
  • Wire processing
  • Label manufacturing
  • OEM panel manufacturing
  • Custom-engineered panel manufacturing
  • 5S + Safety methodology
  • Certifications – UL 508A, UL 698A, CUL, ETL

Fire Impact Requires Rapid Response from Egan Trades

Monday, December 28th, 2020

For over 75 years, Egan Company has committed to providing exceptional service and keeping our promises to our customers, no matter the time of day nor the severity of the need. When a fire destroyed part of Burnett Dairy Cooperative’s Grantsburg, Wisc. plant this summer, Egan was consulted immediately to develop a plan to get the plant fully operational as soon as possible. 

UNDER AN ‘AS SOON AS POSSIBLE’ DEADLINE

Known for producing award-winning, high-quality cheese products for over 120 years, and with customers waiting for products in their stores, the need to get the plant fully operational as soon as possible was of utmost importance. Working around the clock, multiple Egan crews comprised of six different trades partnered with Burnett Dairy and additional contractors to demolish and rebuild the infrastructure that was damaged in order to get the production lines back up running.

“We’ve worked with Burnett Dairy for the past few years and have formed a strong relationship,” said Dan Reintjes, Egan Company Project Manager. “When the call came in that we were needed to help after the fire, we were there as fast as possible to get the infrastructure and  production lines in perfect working order again.” 

The fire is believed to have started in the boiler building, which will require a complete rebuild. In the meantime, a temporary operation was conceived and constructed to ensure cheese production and assembly continued.  Egan’s process controls team worked late into the first night getting power to three of the plant’s electrical services and started a complete demolition of the fourth 2000 amp 5-section service gear which was then designed, built, installed and operational in nine days. The ammonia compressors were also powered up with generators on the first day in order to get Burnett Dairy’s warehouse coolers running to save all the products that were  already produced. Egan’s Mechanical team worked to make damaged piping safe and get temporary water piping installed as well as planning for a temporary boiler installation.

Egan was one of the contractors that was onsite within 18 hours of the fire trucks leaving the scene and didn’t leave until the plant was fully operational,” said Dave Gaiser, Burnett Dairy Cooperative CEO.  “With their help, Burnett was able to get our retail store back open within a few days so we were able to open for the weekend after the fire.  Within seven days, they assisted with getting one of our packaging lines operating so we could package cheese from other manufacturers and begin shipping to our customers. Egan worked 24/7 coordinating with other contractors to get Burnett running within two months of a fire impacting all utilities servicing the plant.

Beyond the initial scope of work that was completed to get the plant operational, additional projects were finished in order to restore complete operation to the plant. Egan engineers designed and programmed a new control system for the milk transfer and CIP systems that were lost in the fire, and additional electricians were tasked with installing new power distribution panels and feeders as well as installing the new milk transfer and CIP control panels and interconnect wiring.

Working alongside the controls electricians, Egan’s Mechanical trades were tasked with setting up the temporary, 900 horsepower self-contained boiler.  The team was also responsible for hydro testing and repairing all existing piping to ensure functionality and safety due to the fire.

BACK UP AND OPERATIONAL

The plant was back up and operational in 62 days, processing milk from 150 farms, and bringing 300 people back to work.

Burnett Dairy is currently operating with a temporary boiler trailer in place and due to the work of many contractors working within a tight timeline. Next steps for the plant include the design, engineering, and construction of the new boiler building; Egan’s full-time maintenance presence at the plant will continue, and any additional help the site needs as it starts the process of rebuilding from the fire.  

“Egan is a valuable business partner and the accomplishments of the past couple of months would not have been possible without them,” said Gaiser.

MULTI-TRADE PROJECT TEAM

  • 35 Egan onsite electricians
  • 15 Egan controls and mechanical engineers contributed to the needed design and engineering
  • 31 Egan plumbers, pipefitters, and sheet metal workers were onsite
  • 5 limited energy technicians delivered network installations with all new data cabinets and cabling for the plant
  • 10 control panel technicians built eight U.L. 508A control panels on a tight turnaround

Discover Egan: Onsite Engineering Support

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2017

When workloads get heavy and staff is overwhelmed, sometimes reinforcements are necessary. To alleviate this pressure, food processing and manufacturing customers utilize the support of Egan Company’s full-time, on-site, trained controls engineers. With schedule flexibility, our team of controls engineers and CAD technicians are available to assist as needed.

The focus areas of an onsite engineer differ depending on the site, but may include:

  • Providing machine upgrades as requested for existing and new projects
  • Designing/implementing new process components and control processes
  • Supplementing the customers’ full-time engineering staff
  • Providing maintenance and troubleshooting of systems
  • Creating CAD symbols and standards
  • Developing new control processes

Throughout the Upper Midwest, industrial and manufacturing customers are utilizing Egan’s industry veterans onsite to deliver engineering skills and industry expertise at their sites.

Most recently, a large manufacturing customer requested the help of three Egan engineers to provide full-time support for the customer’s full-time engineers on backlogged projects.

“These partnerships are great for us and the customer,” said Brian Harren, Engineering Manager. “We know the customer and the facility, which allows us to provide a vetted employee that can work quickly and effectively.”

Learn more about our process controls engineering.