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Design co-ordination played an important role in the successful completion of the building permit design and detailed design for the Toms Group state-of- the-art confectionery facility in Poland.

Design Co-ordination

This type of complex, process driven design project required significant design co-ordination especially between the various engineering disciplines and the process and utility contractors. PM Group developed and managed the 3D BIM model in Revit for all disciplines, the specialist contractors and equipment vendors to input/access through the design process. 


Building Permit Design and Detailed Design

The building permit design was prepared in accordance with the Polish Codes by licensed designers, and was comprised of the following disciplines:

Civil, Structural and Architectural (CSA) Design

The following buildings were designed:

  • Main production building
  • Central Utilities Building (CUB) connected via a pipe bridge to the production building
  • External warehouse / shed
  • Sprinkler pump-house and water tank
  • Guardhouse
  • Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) with microbiological process
  • Bike shelter

Main Building Design

The main building structure was prefabricated. The foundations were cast -in situ and the prefabricated steel trusses brought to site.

The main building consists of:

  • Cast in situ concrete foot and linear foundations
  • Concrete prefabricated columns
  • Pre-stressed RF concrete beams in high care areas
  • Steel trusses in medium care areas and warehouses
  • Trapezoid steel sheet and mineral wool and PVC membrane roof
  • External sandwich panel system made of PIR and mineral wool foam
  • Masonry type firewalls


Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Design

The HVAC system provides the production and office areas with treated air via dedicated supply and exhaust units. The process equipment generates large internal heat gains. The volume of air moving through the various process areas exceeds 340 000 m3/h. The heating system is generated from the Central Utilities Building.  External chillers provide the chilled water to the requirements of the various HVAC systems. There is also a 5,000 sq m chilled warehouse, for storing finished product at 15°C. A central Building Management System (BMS) controls the entire plant.  

 

Electrical Design

Ensuring continuity of supply
During finalisation of the purchase contract there was no power available within a radius of 4 km. A new power line needed to be constructed and a new 5MW power station now supplies the site from the city.  The main incoming electrical switchgear is housed in the Central Utilities Building (CUB) from where it is stepped down to working voltages and distributed around the site.
 

Electrical installation included:

  • Medium Voltage cable supply ca 4 Km direct from Main Power Switch Station in the city
  • Medium voltage distribution
  • 4 transformers
  • Low voltage distribution with halogen free cabling
  • Process and building MCCs
  • LED Lighting
  • Access Control to some areas
  • BMS
  • Fire alarm System with smoke detection system in each room
  • Regular and process sockets 0,4kV
  • CCTV

A standby generator guarantees supply to the fire protection system and to the semi-finished warehouse. This is critical to maintain product temperatures at 15°C for up to 24 hours in the event of an interruption to the mains power supply.

Utilities 

Utility generation is housed in a standalone CUB, connected via a pipe bridge to the production building. Three different hot water systems (80, 55 and 40°C) are required for the process.  Process wastewater and domestic sewage feed to the waste water treatment plant. 
Fire hydrants are located around the periphery of the site and sprinklers installed in the raw material warehouse.

 

Previously in this series:

Read Article 1 in the Toms Group series:
Delivering a state-of-the-art confectionery facility in Poland
 

Read Article 2 in the Toms Group series:
Sustainability, process and GMP design at Toms confectionery manufacturing

 

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