The Philadelphia region has been a world leader in life sciences for decades. While pharmaceutical and biotechnology offices used to reside in suburban office parks, downtown is now earning a reputation as the preferred destination for the booming life sciences market. Developers in the city find high-rise buildings offer special challenges, but new air handling technologies and customized solutions are enabling more labs and offices to open on higher floors.
When a life science company recently decided to expand its facilities downtown, Coward Environmental Systems, Inc. (CESI) helped find the new air handling units required for an indoor mechanical room. While these units had to be large and hardworking, they also needed to work within existing infrastructure and arrive in modular units sized to fit within the building’s elevators.
Dissembled to Fit in an Elevator
Greg Munter, Sales Engineer at CESI, had dealt with similar challenges in the past, so he was ready with customized solutions. “This project required custom air handling units to serve their process spaces,” Munter notes. “Because it was an existing building, the AHUs had to be disassembled, palletized to fit within elevators, brought up in pieces, and reassembled in place.”
Buffalo Air Handling’s AHUs fit the bill. “One of the things Buffalo Air Handling is known for is the ability to dissemble and reassemble on site,” says Munter. “Its construction methods and commitment to customization make it possible. In fact, Buffalo does these kinds of projects all the time. For this project, we shipped the dissembled air handling units on pallets. The contractor received the pallets, brought them up in elevators, and reassembled the unit in place once they got all the pieces up to the mechanical room.”
Anticipating Issues
Because Buffalo Air Handling regularly works with confined dimensions, they can anticipate issues. “The engineer from Buffalo figures out how big the elevator is, weight limits, and how big the pieces are arranged on the pallets,” Munter explains. “Buffalo makes it easy to move the pallets without big cranes. It’s packed so it fits into the elevators, and a Buffalo rep is onsite to oversee the delivery and assembly.”
The delivery method impacted every part of the AHU. Munter emphasizes, “The site restrictions impacted the size of panels, how big our base sections were, which type of fans we used, which type of coils, and so on. None of the pieces could be too big to fit into the elevator.”
“The process reminds me of a Lego set,” Munter says. “Everything arrives flat and knocked down in pieces, and then they reassemble it on site. The contractor takes all the pieces, follows the instructions and the drawings, and then builds it in place. And a Buffalo rep is there to ensure it all works perfectly.”
Buffalo Air Has a History of Customization
For more than a century, Buffalo Air Handling has been building products to last. Custom solutions and specially tailored deliveries make it possible for Buffalo Air Handling to provide AHUs for high-stakes installations from coast to coast. The company offers superior engineering, fabrication, and installation with onsite support.
Want to Learn More About Buffalo Air Handling?
Coward Environmental Systems, Inc. proudly represents Buffalo Air Handling in the Philadelphia region, Central PA, and Delaware. Contact us today to discover how Buffalo Air Handling can be a part of your next project.
