New 3600m² Facility Design with Property Consolidation Included

LAS was contracted by the client in early 2019 to evaluate the requirements for their new blow moulding facility as well as for the electrical consolidation requirements needed to consolidate the existing and new blow moulding properties into one with the local council on a utilities front. The client provided stringent local and international standards to which the design had to comply, which was maintained by LAS throughout the entire design process.

LAS consulted on the entire electrical design of the new factory, including electrical distribution, metering and electrical reticulation. Further, LAS assisted with the specification of the Chiller and Cooling Plant Capacities and Pipeline Designs after careful liaising with the client’s manufacturers and preferred suppliers. LAS also evaluated and proposed new designs for a complete Building Management System which would further incorporate full control, monitoring and reporting functionality on a SCADA platform on and off of the site for both the manufacturing machinery as well as on a BMS front. The overall design was structured in such a way as to meet client budgetary requirements by setting the project out into phases that could be implemented in steps, over time to meet the client’s operational needs.

LAS designed the main switchboard rated at 1600A @ 36kA, split into three distinctive sub-sections, namely:

· Main Incoming Supply (metered) 1600A.
· Master PFC Feeder, which would see the entire property benefiting from existing PFC systems in place 800A;
· Main Feeder to existing Vacuum Forming Facility (Property 1 – metered) 450A;
· Main Section Feeder to new Blow Moulding Facility (Property 2 – metered) 1250A;
· Main Utilities Plant Feeder (metered) 500A.

The new office extension on the existing building was also designed for the client which incorporated new office space, storage space, access control and a security control point. Upon completion of the basic design philosophy. Full lighting modelling and specification was done for the entire interior and exterior of the facility. LED technology was utilised for energy saving, colour rendering and lighting intensity level requirements. The designs implemented catered for key areas namely:

· Manufacturing Bay Areas @ 800 lux, 6500k;
· Assembly and Inspection Areas @ 400 lux, 6500k;
· Finished Goods Stores @ 200 lux, 6500k;
· Exterior Lighting @ 100 lux, 6500k with potential architectural lighting considerations considered.

Two dedicated touch screens were catered for at key points in the factory to centralise two main points of lighting control, and for energy saving purposes, the lighting control catered for “DIM” and “FULL” configurable options. The kiosk also catered for an emergency lighting test option, automatic outside lighting switching based on time of day, and suitable testing functionality to allow for routine maintenance to be executed effectively on outside lighting.