Menasha Packaging Company

Menasha packaging had excessive amounts of heat produced by their corrugation machine that was 100% exhausted year-round. This required a lot of makeup air — heated makeup air in the winter. Because of inadequate amounts of makeup air, during the winter months outside air infiltration caused severe cold areas of the plant.  Rohde Bros proposed a dual mode system: Exhaust mode during summer with 100% operation of makeup air unit for ventilation. Transfer Mode during the winter to bring hot process air from the corrugation machine to the loading doc. As well economizer fans were installed near the corrugation machine that filters and modulates outside air with return air to maintain comfort in the winter and meet the pressure needs of the factory.

The Building Management System was a custom designed Honeywell system. This internet based system allows access from any computer for scheduling, viewing of data, and control of HVAC equipment. Complete with Utility monitors for process machinery and offices as well as gas metering for the entire plant.

Key Points from this project:

• Variable frequency drives utilized to run HVAC equipment motors at lower frequencies for energy savings.
• Initial results indicate a 80-90% reduction in gas usage for comfort heating.
• Grant was approximately 25% of project cost allowing a 1.9 year payback.