Plant Renovation and Expansion - Portland, Ore.
CLIENT
Nabisco Brands, Inc.
Ibberson was awarded the contract to engineer the broad-scoped project. Highlights of the project involved a total replacement of the mixing area, including installation of eight new dough mixers and complete new automated ingredient batching systems; a revamped pneumatic receiving system and increased bulk storage capacity; remodeling of the proof room; and new systems to reclaim off-spec product.
Due to the plant’s age, many of the operations were manual. Converting them to automated operations was an integral part of the project.
Special challenges abounded. They began with an analysis of the old structure and design of structural improvements that would enable the existing building to support all the new equipment.
Another aspect that proved challenging was the large number of recipes needing to be mixed. For this reason, multiple ingredient delivery systems had to be installed in very space-restricted areas.
Furthermore, determining the proper capacity of each ingredient delivery system given the many possible product conditions proved to be one of the most difficult and yet crucial portions of the engineering for this plant renovation.