Equipment Addition

When one industrial company needed to add equipment to its chemical processing system, it turned to the single-source services of mechanical contractor Andy J. Egan Co., Inc. to cut the install time in half.

The customer had a piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) for the new equipment, but needed to consider existing conditions and space requirements when installing it. Rather than hire a third-party engineering firm, the company relied on engineering from Egan’s internal Design-Build department. This reduced the pre-construction timeframe and eliminated the need for another party to convert the design drawings to construction drawings.

In order to account for existing conditions, Egan first conducted a 3D laser scan of the processing facility. From the scan, Egan engineered a precisely coordinated, preliminary 3D model. During the design and coordination process, the customer was also able to review the virtual model in real-time for details such as entrance heights and equipment access points. Modifications could easily be made without lengthening the schedule.

Early on, the project team recognized that the customer’s planned four-week shut down would not be sufficient time for a traditional installation. Piping the project completely onsite would have required twice that time, Egan estimated. Instead, Egan’s engineers designed the system in two modules that could be fabricated off site at Egan’s headquarters. Construction in Egan’s fabrication shop commenced four weeks in advance of the shutdown. During that timeframe, the customer could also visit Egan’s facility to review the modules in person. When the modular packages were delivered to the customer’s site, they could be installed at just a few tie-in points, minimizing onsite welding.

The unique, in-house combination of Design-Build, 3D laser scanning and fabrication capabilities allowed Egan to shorten the onsite construction time by half, install within the shutdown window and return the customer to normal operations.

View this video to hear one of Egan’s Design- Build engineers discuss the entire process, plus see more photos and videos of the project.