Engineering with Joe D

With IMEC’s assistance, Saint Gobain Abrasives in Worcester, MA is upgrading an on-site Powerhouse facility to pave the way to increase its CoGen capacity to 5 megawatts

When executives at Freudenberg-NOK’s 6-acre manufacturing plant in Bristol, NH began planning for a massive energy-efficiency project late in 2014, they couldn’t have dreamed of reducing the facility’s carbon footprint by 50% and saving more than $1.1 million per year on energy costs.

Garlock Printing, a leading commercial printer in Gardner, Massachusetts, has tapped IMEC for a major renovation of its press room to improve ventilation and air quality for employees while reducing energy costs.

Last week, IMEC president and director of engineering, Joe D’Ambrosio, was invited to speak to a group of the largest manufacturers in Rhode Island about the conception and design of efficient mechanical systems. Joe’s focus was on taking a scientific approach to solving mechanical challenges, and designing and building systems that benefit everyone by dramatically cutting energy costs and reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing facilities.

On Wednesday May 6, president and director of engineering Joe D’Ambrosio, Sr. and team accepted the award for Innovative Energy Project of the Year from the Association of Energy Engineers of New England at the Annual New England Energy Awards at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Waltham. D’Ambrosio also made a presentation about the challenges, solutions, and energy efficiency features of the winning heat recovery project for Cains Foods.

With the assistance of the mechanical engineering design/build firm IMEC in Ayer, MA, the Freudenberg factory’s legacy system, which employs obsolete high pressure steam boilers and #6 fuel oil, is being scrapped in favor of leading-edge design and technology. The plant’s entire heating load will be replaced with efficient liquefied natural gas (LNG), initially phased in by employing propane as a bridge fuel.