Matrix Engineers Turn Old Warehouse into Modern Manufacturing Facility

Matrix Engineers Turn Old Warehouse into Modern Manufacturing Facility

For any engineering project, understanding the arrangement of the building, equipment, and space is very important. In a typical industrial greenfield project, the focus is on the process and packaging aspects. Once these are defined, the building and its features are laid-in to accommodate this process and packaging footprint. Building structural members, utilities locations, office spaces, and ancillary facilities are positioned in a fashion to provide the optimal performance of the facility while keeping in mind accessibility, utilities, material flow, and ergonomics.

In contrast, with a brownfield site, the owner and engineer are at the mercy of the existing building and its features. Because of this, the process must be reverse-engineered to fit into the available space. This can often become a difficult task, especially in older facilities if existing drawings are not available. This was the case with a recent project that Matrix Technologies completed for a customer in the southeast area. Our engineers were tasked with turning a 250,000 ft² brownfield site (built in the 1950s) into a functional facility to accommodate a new manufacturing process that consisted of raw material storage, batching, filling, and packaging.

Project Phases

Matrix approached the project in three phases: scanning, demolition, and engineering.

Phase One: Scanning

During the first phase of the project, Matrix engineers laser scanned the existing facility to define the building and internal features. With this data, Matrix was able to generate a 3D model of the existing building, which was shared with the equipment vendor responsible for the packaging equipment. Once the final layouts were reviewed and approved by the owner, the second phase of the project could commence.

Phase Two: Demolition

Several abandoned areas of the building required demolition and refurbishment before the space could accommodate the new process. During phase two, our team developed demolition plans for removing existing walls, slabs, office spaces, restrooms, and site features that were necessary to accommodate the new process infrastructure.

Phase Three: Engineering

The Matrix team worked very closely with the owner on the engineering package development, focusing efforts on long-lead items such as tanks specs, pumps, valving, and instrumentation, as well as areas of the facility requiring significant construction efforts. The packages were broken down into (1) architectural, (2) civil/site, (3) process/mechanical/piping, (4) power/instrumentation/controls, and (5) programming.

Architectural Design. Matrix’s team worked very closely with the customer team to arrange the facility to meet the functionality of the process, incorporating multiple vendor equipment layouts and the proposed facility modifications. They also ensured their designs met the requirements of local and state building codes.

The team was also responsible for the design of a new 7,000 ft² office space. Because the existing office area was not functional for the needs of the customer, our team developed plans for demolishing the existing space and designing a new floor plan that incorporated several new offices, conference rooms, locker rooms, cafeteria/breakroom, control room/lab space, plant floor restrooms, shift change conference room, upgraded shipping and receiving offices, and a flammable storage room.

Civil/Site Design. For this phase of the project, the site had to be redeveloped to accommodate a new tanker truck unloading station. Our team faced two significant challenges: (1) several elevation changes from the road entrance to the building and (2) multiple drainage problems that led to water pooling in the proposed unloading area. In order to combat the elevation changes, significant grading of the site was completed to allow for the truck access and maneuverability. To handle the drainage issues, our team installed new trench drains at the apron of the drive access points with a secondary trench drain expanding the width of the trucking unloading area. Whatever remaining water that was not caught by the drains was directed to a catch basin that ties into the main city storm system. Since the installation, no pooling or flooding has been observed onsite.

In addition to the truck unloading area, a new employee parking lot was engineered and constructed on the site. Existing green space in front of the office was utilized for the new 60-space lot which included new lighting, security fencing, access gates, and turnstiles. Due to the acreage disturbed, a new retention pond was installed to meter the storm runoff into the city storm system.

Process/Piping/Mechanical Design. The process design for the project revolved around raw material transfer, storage, and batching. Matrix’s process and piping engineers developed the P&IDs with the customer team and used its 3D modeling software along with the point cloud to engineer the interconnecting piping between the raw material tanks, batch tank, flammable storage room, and filler. The Matrix team also developed tank and mechanical equipment specifications and aided the customer by vetting bids and making recommendations for the purchase of tank and mechanical equipment.

Power/Instrumentation/Controls. Because this facility was a warehouse space, adequate power distribution was not available to feed the new process, filling, and packaging lines. To address this problem, Matrix’s power engineer was responsible for upgrading the power distribution for the facility, a task that required design and specification of new MCC’s, 480V distribution panels, and 208V/120V utility power panels to supply process and facility loads. Matrix constructed a new 1,200 ft² electrical room to accommodate the new electrical equipment and upgraded the entire facility to LED lighting. Finally, working with the architectural group, the power engineer designed and specified a new 120V office lighting and receptacles plans for a 7,000 ft² office renovation.

Matrix’s instrumentation engineers worked closely with the process team to develop the instrument locations plans and specifications for the new process. This involved identifying and specifying over 200 devices and instruments, soliciting the vendor quotes, handling procurement services, and coordinating with the installation contractors. Matrix also developed the I/O schematic for the contractor installations and designed and procured the PLC control panels for the project that housed the new ControlLogix PAC.

Programming. Matrix Technologies provided the software development for the Process Supervisory Control System. Software design services included Functional Design Specification (FDS) Development, programming, pre-shipment testing, and automation equipment specification. Matrix’s automation team worked closely with the end-user’s automation, process, and operations teams from the initial development of the FDS through the pre-shipment testing. Following this project development methodology allowed for all parties to be aligned on the functional requirements and performance expectations throughout the course of the project, which also provided for a more efficient startup.

The Process Supervisory Control System itself was based on a ControlLogix and FactoryTalk View platform. Matrix’s automation team created a FactoryTalk View SE application to handle operations and developed the programmable automation controller (PAC) software based on custom-built phase logic, add-on instructions, and user-defined structures that were provided by the end-user. Our team also implemented several localized HMI stations throughout the process area for local control of the system and used a custom phase logic for control of several raw material tanks, a batch tank, transfer of product to a holding tank, filler supply, a reclaim tank, and a waste water tank.

Brownfield Site Success

Though the brownfield site presented some challenges, Matrix engineers were able to tackle the problems head on and provide the customer with a new facility that fits their needs. By using our expertise in the process of multi-discipline engineering, we were able to find solutions to challenges presented by abandoned and/or inadequate space, outdated electrical systems, and grading and drainage issues as well as plan and produce a manufacturing process that met performance expectations.

Matrix Technologies is one of the largest independent process design, industrial automation engineering, and manufacturing operations management companies in North America. To learn more about process design capabilities and manufacturing process control solutions, contact Brett Rygalski, PE, LEED AP, Senior Project Manager.

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