Getting out of a Jam
Smuckers installs 12,000-gallon,
precast concrete water softener.
By Bridget McCrea
Water spots on jelly jars
are unacceptable at The J.M. Smucker Co., a
firm that’s been producing some of the
world’s best-known fruit spreads, ice
cream toppings and natural peanut butter since
1897. Smuckers prides itself in not only providing
the best tasting food possible, but also selling
it in packaging that is aesthetic and attractive.
That means no water spots
on the jars, according to Jim Godson, project
engineer for the company. With its headquarters
in Orrville, Ohio, Smuckers has 12 manufacturing
plants, four fruit processing facilities and
2,700 employees nationwide. To ensure that those
jars continue to come off its expanding assembly
line in a spot-free fashion, the company purchased
a larger water softener for its Rippen, Wis.,
plant in the fall of 2002.
To physically wash the jelly
jars and remove the water spots, Smuckers also
needed a holding tank larger than the several
smaller tanks it was currently using. To consolidate
the process, Godson engineered a 12,000-gallon
precast concrete holding tank that was manufactured
in two pieces. The end result was a 20-foot-long
and 12-foot-wide tank, created in a “clamshell”
format.
Godson says precast concrete
was the most economical and logical choice for
the tank, based on recommendations he received
from the pulp and paper industry, which frequently
uses precast for similar operations. “With
the proper coatings on the inside of the tank,”
says Godson, “we knew precast would provide
a ready-to-go type solution for our company.”
Building the Tank
Built by Wieser Concrete
Products Inc. of Portage, Wis., Smuckers’
new holding tank was manufactured in two parts
that weighed about 30,000 pounds each. Wayne
Mink, plant manager, says the only special design
consideration was the piping network required
to draw the saltwater out of the tank.
The tank was covered with
4-mils. of an epoxy coating, which had to be
durable enough to withstand penetration of the
brine (for more information on concrete coatings,
please turn to page 10. Mississippi Valley Coating
and Painting in Lacrosse, Wis., handled the
coating process by prepping the surface, sandblasting
it, cleaning off the dust and applying the sealant
in two coats.
During the process, the coating
company took into consideration the caustic
chemicals that would be used during Smuckers’
jar-cleaning process. “We recommended
a high-solid epoxy, whose properties are more
resistant to chemicals,” says Jeff Laufle,
president of Mississippi Valley Coating. “The
85 percent solids gave the coating a thicker
build, and we applied it in 4-mils., dry film
thickness.”
Bill Kinas, president of Pollesch/Kinas
Excavating in Green Lake, Wis., installed the
tank after painstakingly excavating a hole that
was situated near one of the company’s
buildings. “We had to go down below the
footing level of the existing building, and
it had to be done carefully in order to avoid
undermining that existing building,” says
Kinas, who says the excavation and installation
took one day and went smoothly.
With the bottom of the tank
in place, a “Christmas tree” draw
pipe was installed on the floor of the tank’s
bottom section. Once the pipe was in position,
12 inches of ¾-inch gravel was layered
over it. This brine tank was completed by installing
the top section of the tank using a quality
sealant and filling the tank with salt. The
tank was then filled with water. As the water
drains down through the salt and rock, the salt
water is drawn out of the tank through the bottom
drain system. It then runs through a processor
to convert it to soft water and pumped into
a large vat where a conveyor moves filled jars
through the water to remove water spots from
the jelly jars.
Positive Results
Smuckers’ water
softening operations were back in action the
next day, thanks to the project’s quick
installation. That, combined with the precast
concrete’s durability, resulted in a very
successful project, according to Mink. The project
was also cost-effective compared to more expensive
options like fiberglass, steel or plastic. Precast
concrete is also longer lasting, won’t
pop out of the ground (like plastic tanks tend
to do) and is “much more structurally
sound than fiberglass or steel,” says
Mink.
When asked how the new water
softener and tank are performing, Godson says
“so far, so good – no problems at
all.” He adds that the company has yet
to measure any significant time or cost savings
but says when the time comes it will compare
year-by-year salt purchases to determine how
much money it’s saving with the new system.
Because the tank uses salt
in bulk rather than bags, Smuckers is already
providing a more ergonomically-friendly work
environment for its employees, who no longer
have to “haul and dump” the salt
bags into its smaller softeners. “The
employees are very happy with it,” says
Godson. “When we put the new tank in,
we told the guy who normally dumps bags of salt
into the smaller tanks to start filling it up
with salt. He was happy that we were joking
of course, because it would have taken him a
couple of days to fill it up.”
Project Profile
Project:
12,000 gallon precast water softener
Project Owner:
J.M. Smuckers Co.
Coordinator/Engineer:
Jim Godson (Smuckers)
Contractor:
Pollesch/Kinas Excavating, Green Lake, Wis.
Coating:
Mississippi Valley Coating, LaCrosse, Wis.
Precast Manufacturer:
Wieser Concrete Products
Inc., Fond du Lac, Wis.*
*Wieser Concrete
Products Inc. is a certified plant under NPCA’s
Quality Assurance/Plant Certification program.
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