Crown Cork & Steel

Customer: Crown Holdings Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Application: 22’ to 28’ tall walls to enclose metal packaging equipment. Benefits Provided: Extra tall walls with vision windows, conveyor openings and double doors.

The Situation
Crown Holdings, based in Philadelphia, PA, is a leader in metal packaging for the food, beverage, household, industrial, health and beauty industries. The company manufactures cans, closures and other aerosole, beverage, food and specialty packaging items that are made out of metal.

The company needed to construct an isolated room that would comply with EPA regulations related to VOC’s in the air generated by its baby food can lid printing and manufacturing room. Crown Holdings is committed to the environment and green initiatives so the company explored the benefits of modular construction vs. traditional construction methods.

The Evaluation
Within the room, there were three assembly lines where pallets of sheet steel were loaded into press auto feeders, multi-color printers, bake ovens, stamp-out presses and bulk box unloading areas.

The largest production line was 45 feet wide and 78 feet long. This meant that PortaFab had to create a 3,510 square foot room that also had 22 to 28 foot ceilings and everything in the room had to be completely contained.

Because of the size of the space, constructing a traditional built wall would be extremely labor intensive and inconvenient to ongoing operations. Modular systems on the other hand could be brought in and constructed much more quickly. Plus as the company adjusted the operation in the future, modular systems could be repurposed. As a result, Crown decided to install a modular wall system.

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The Solution
PortaFab supplied its local dealer with the materials needed to properly complete this project.  The recommended the steelspan floor-to-roof wall system, which measured between 22’ and 28’ tall. The main roof’s HVAC and burnoff system were able to contain the toxic solvents so that additional ventilation systems were not needed.

PortaFab designed the room with several specialized features. Windows were added in the walls so equipment control panels could be placed outside of the room. Enabling operators to avoid breathing in the VOCs at all times. Conveyer openings were cut into the walls to facilitate easy pallet loading and the installation of double doors ensured accessibility for future equipment maintenance.

Although the main purpose of the wall system was particle containment, it also provides a sound barrier so that the noise created in printing is not as pervasive in the main areas of the facility.