(Project Manager, Alex Hochhausl, P.E. with the award winning panel at the ACEC NY Gala.)
MELVILLE, NY —
The American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC NY) hosted their 51st annual Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on April 7, 2018 at the Hilton Midtown in New York City.
Awards were presented to projects that encompass both the public and private sector in the following categories: studies, research, and consulting services; building/technology systems; structural systems; surveying and mapping technology; environmental; waste and storm water; water resources; transportation; energy; industrial and manufacturing processes and facilities; and special projects. Submitted projects are judged on rigorous set of criteria including complexity, innovation, and value to society. The projects are then granted either a Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Diamond Award.
H2M architects + engineers (H2M) submitted a total of eight projects this year and proudly received a Platinum Award for their American Packaging ASRS project in Wisconsin.
The American Packaging Corporation (APC) is a renowned leader in the packaging industry throughout North America. APC’s mission statement declares that they are “committed to meeting the supply needs of customers by providing the highest levels of quality, service, and innovation at competitive pricing.” In order to meet their mission statement, H2M was tasked with designing and commissioning a custom automated 6,300 position automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS)for APC’s printing press cylinders.
H2M had to coordinate a building envelope, a roof bottom of steel elevation, and build column locations all within four weeks of project kick-off. Besides the mechanical and structural design, the other elements of this project included electrical design, machine controls, software design, and user interface and database management software. H2M worked with Hediger AG, a company based in Switzerland; while FCTR, LLC, a New Jersey company provided the user interface and database design.
The team worked to design every level of motion actuation and control to ensure the system would operate reliably and safely to minister the unattended 24/7/365 production desired. All elements had to be detailed to fabrication level including tolerances, finishes, hardness, and appropriate material selections. The system then performs its primary positioning based on a laser distance measurement with the offset calculated by incremental encoders, verified by inductive proximity sensors; and finally confirmed by optical sensors. The communication between axes of motion are accomplished by infrared line of sight devices. This eliminates the need for cables and their limiting conductor breakage of repeated motion.
The creation of this system makes production within the plant much safer. Instead of people having to handle each cylinder, subjecting themselves to injury and/or the product to damage, the system automatically stores and retrieves the cylinders with a simple point and click operation on the user interface. This also eliminates the possibility of any human error or damage to the cylinders.
Although, perhaps the most profound feature of this system is the environmental sustainability. The footprint of this system is 5,800 square feet with 18 levels to store cylinders on. If this system wasn’t created, the cylinders would have to be stored the conventional way, on the floor with pallets, which would require an estimated 52,000 square feet. Cylinders would also have to be wrapped in bubble wrap and strapped down before being stored, creating an excessive amount of wasted materials. With this system, the ongoing purchasing, delivery, storage application, removal, and disposal of these materials have been eliminated; reducing labor cost, material cost, floor space, and environmental impact.
H2M is honored to have attended such a distinguished event and to have been recognized with such a prestigious award.
ACEC New York is a proactive coalition of 270 firms representing every discipline of engineering related to the built environment — civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, environmental, geotechnical — and affiliated companies. Their shared goals are to further the business interests of their membership, enhance the quality and safety of the environment we all live and work in, and help ensure the vitality of our communities. For more information, visit www.acecny.org.
Celebrating 85 years, H2M is a full-service consulting and design firm offering the expertise of more than 390 architects, engineers (water supply, civil/site, structural, M/E/P, wastewater and environmental), planners, designers, inspectors, surveyors and scientists. H2M is proud of its long history of client service and consistent ability to meet architectural, engineering, and environmental challenges head on. H2M offers a practical approach, with creative results.
