When it comes to designing and building cold food warehouses, it doesn’t take voices in the cornfield to make dreams come true. That’s because today’s advanced concepts make it possible for design-build providers to develop a myriad of customized solutions that offer sustainability, energy savings and due diligence.
ESI Group USA, for instance, offers a plethora of turnkey services, including site selection, due diligence studies, cost/benefit analysis, processing layouts, low-temperature warehousing, on-site construction management services, process automation and controls, blast and spiral freezers and automatic storage retrieval facilities.
“Reducing operating costs is not a new design criteria, so the major target areas in our facilities have been well ferreted out with advanced control, including variable frequency drives on the refrigeration systems, changes to battery charging equipment and procedures and increased use of occupancy sensors and LED lights in the warehouse, including the freezer operations,” says Jack Michler, regional manager for the Hartland, Wis., company.
Primus Builders Inc., Woodstock, Ga., provides solutions that are rooted in helping its customers meet their goals, whether they be automation, safety, location or sustainability.
“Owners desire less human contact and more automation. Food safety and tracking has become a serious priority. There is a resurgence in port- and rail-side
facilities. Many owners recognize the benefits of being good stewards of the environment,” says Matt Hirsch, vice president of sales. “We provide these services to a wide variety of cold storage and food processing clients, including dairies, chicken, pork and beef processors, pizza processors and grocery cold storage and distribution centers across the country.”
For its part, Randall Manufacturing takes pride in meeting sustainable product initiatives. That’s why it developed InsulWall, a 100% reusable product that consists of a 5-foot-wide panel design that uses a Velcro connection for each reconfiguration and re-use.
“A thermal curtain wall can be used for isolating conditioned space in the warehouse for energy savings, increased product integrity, employee comfort or to follow the ever-increasing demand of federal regulation,” according to Todd Jessup, territory manager for the Elmhurst, Ill.-based company. “By design of the product, facility owners can reconfigure their walls to allocate as much or as little temperature-controlled space as needed.”