Before Thermaxx'd
March 1, 2012
The Project -- Thermaxx entered into contract December 2011 with a Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse Located in Mooresville, NC to provide removable insulation for a plate and frame heat exchanger.
In October, 2011, Lowe's Maintenance and Engineering Teams visited the Thermaxx booth at the Carolina Industrial & Facility Maintenance Show in Charlotte, NC. During conversation with the Thermaxx sales representative, the Lowe's team realized they had a need for removable reusable insulated jackets on a large Plate and Frame Heat Exchanger. The materials previously used on this unit were of ½ inch ridged board fiberglass foil faced insulation, cut into large unmanageable sheets and held in place with weld pins. During routine maintenance these sheets had to be removed and reused as best as they could. Rigid fiberglass sheets are brittle and difficult to reuse. The weld pins would break off, the sheets would break, and reinstallation would be very time consuming. Welding the weld pins directly to the exchanger made for botched reassembly, and the entire effort to insulate was inefficient due to improper materials and fit.
During the last attempt to remove and save, the materials broke into many pieces and Thermaxx was called onto the scene. To give Lowes the best custom fit possible, our sales representative, Bill Tyree, gathered all the information Thermaxx needed through careful measuring, photo taking and Internet research. The proper materials were used to manufacture a complete system that is totally removable and reusable and very user friendly. The team at Lowe's is proud to have the Thermaxx Jacket system on their equipment. During revisits to their facility, reports have been very satisfactory. Removing and re-installing the insulation cover takes minimum effort and time. Each section is custom made and numbered and no special knowledge is required for removal and re-installation -- any maintenance personnel can do the job, and downtime is minimized.
Heat loss calculations will show a quick Return on Investment (ROI) and will confirm that Lowe's made a wise decision not only in energy savings, but also in material costs savings and longevity that the new system from Thermaxx Jackets offers. Energy. Savings. Value. Mission accomplished.
About Lowe's -- Lowe's has been helping our customers improve the places they call home for more than 60 years. Founded in 1946, Lowe’s has grown from a small hardware store to the 2nd largest home improvement retailer worldwide. Lowe’s stores stock 40,000 products in 20 product categories ranging from appliances to tools, to paint, lumber and nursery products. Lowe’s has hundreds of thousands of more products available by Special Order -- offering everything customers need to build, maintain, beautify and enjoy their homes. Lowe's operates more than 1,725 stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Thermaxx Role -- Thermaxx LLC provided a Removable Insulation Jacket for the plate and frame heat exchanger at Lowe's. Work was completed in December of 2011
About Jackets -- Standard insulation, installed during construction, is often removed and not replaced on piping components (heat exchangers, pressure reducing valves, gate valves, steam traps, unions, etc…) that require routine maintenance. Removable Insulation Jackets are designed to insulate those components and allow maintenance personnel to quickly remove and replace the insulation to facilitate general maintenance. In addition to keeping the work place safe, insulation jackets also keep the heat where it belongs: in the piping!
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