HVAC innovation
www.heatingandventilating.net
Vibration control crucial for precision manufacturing
Vibration control specialist, Mason UK, designed a sophisticated vibration isolation system for heating, cooling and fi ltration systems to ensure conditions at an advanced manufacturing site in Ireland were ideal for high-precision manufacturing
T
he site is considered to be one of the most technologically advanced manufacturing locations in Europe and the facility has
undergone an upgrade that has enabled production of 14nm process technology. However, these cutting-edge chips could not
be realised without very precise manufacturing conditions. This requires a vast array of heating, cooling and fi ltration systems, all of which must be correctly isolated, since even exceptionally low levels of vibration can cause errors in fabrication. To achieve the stable environment required in the
fabrication clean rooms, mechanical processes such as cooling, heating, ventilation and fi ltering systems are necessary — all of which generate unwanted vibration at every pump, fan, valve, duct and pipe support. Systems are vast, some ducts being over four metres in diameter, so the project is challenging.
Meeting the specifi cation
Mason UK was brought on board by the contractor early to support the design. What makes this project special is the scale of the facility and volume of vibration control required. As a result, not only the vibration but factors such as wind loading, thermal expansion and the clash of services in a crowded area had to be considered. As one of the biggest construction projects that
Ireland has ever seen, the sheer amount of product that Mason UK supplied was staggering. In total the vibration specialist has so far supplied 3,800 spring mounts, 1,600 hangers and 400 fl exible pipe connectors for the site. With such an unprecedented undertaking ahead, it is little wonder that there was a very onerous specifi cation. “The fi rst requirement is ensuring quality of the engineering design, for example, specifying a particular spring geometry or housings made in a certain way,” explained Adam Fox, director at Mason UK. “The second requirement is ensuring the product has the correct vibration isolation properties. This is determined initially by the location in the building and the experienced product selection of the Mason UK engineering team. “The closer you get to the fabrication, the more
urgent the need for vibration isolation. Similarly, the higher up you go in the building, the more lightweight the structure gets, and more vibration isolation is necessary. Down in the foundations, vibration is minimal, but if you’re on the roof, that roof structure
20 June 2022
can be quite sympathetic to vibration. The vibration isolation properties can also be equipment driven. By and large, the bigger the diameter of your pipe, the bigger your pump or your ducting gets and the more energy it is able to carry. Consequently, larger pipes require a higher level of vibration isolation.”
Design support like no other
The Mason UK team took 3D models of the ducts and supporting steels and generated their own drawings using building information modelling software, Revit. The company also produced detailed 2D drawings using AutoCAD. These were used to calculate how much each component weighs, how much it expands and how much it contracts. This process was repeated for hundreds of pieces of plant equipment and kilometres of building services, for all locations and confi gurations, to show which products were required where. Crucially, this removed some responsibility from the contractor. Mason UK made bespoke spring mounts with
diff erent housing to meet the needs of this project. This allowed for clearance on vertical ducts when they grow and shrink thermally. The company anticipated that it would be diffi cult to detail all duct supports and created bespoke spring mounts, with consistent dimensions and attachments. This ultimately made the installation cheaper and easier.
Quality of product
Mason UK also supplied fl exible connectors for the project to isolate the pumps from the ground. The fl exible pipe connectors selected use a robust fl ange design, reinforced with Kevlar, which has
immense strength and fantastic resistance to becoming brittle over time. “No one else builds connectors in this way,”
continued Fox. “With the vast majority of connectors, you snap them on to their fl ange — but if you can snap them on, you can also snap them off . We use a solid steel ring which is bolted in place so that there’s no way it can snap out and fail. “Our connectors can accept steam or chemicals passing through at high pressure and temperatures. If it were to burst, severe injury or fl ooding can result — the repercussions would be huge. Our Safefl ex fl exible pipe connectors are such a reliable design that we’ve never had a failure.”
DOWNLOAD THE HVR APP NOW
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
