BTB 39: CONSTRUCTION UPDATE – 160 CONSOLIDATED

– Steve Crosby, vice president – Paris operations

With the average temperature well below -10° C (14° F), some construction materials could not be installed including adhesives and, most notably, concrete floors. Concrete is expected to pour in mid-March and, hopefully, the average temperature will pick up enough to allow painting of the roof joists and deck.

160 aerial view

Tigercat maintenance team members from Paris and Cambridge came together to install the crane rails on the three 130 m (425 ft) long high bay areas of the plant in early February and crane installation is scheduled to begin early April. New crane technology in this plant will include up to 32 tonne (35 ton) capacity and 8 m (26 ft) of lift. Every bay will be equipped with load cells for scaling machines and components, to ensure accurate weights and measures for shipping.

On top of managing daily construction activities on site, Tigercat’s design and construction partner, Vicano Construction is pressing forward with quotes and selection of interior and exterior finishes, lighting and power distribution. The state-of-the-art LED lighting system for the plant and office will be completely dimmable. Within the last two months, LED technology has made yet another leap forward and the new fixtures in the plant will be capable of producing fifteen percent more light output at the same input power as originally specified, and at the same initial cost. Dimmable LED lights also allow us to use daylight sensors to reduce the power to the fixtures around the skylights depending on the natural light available from the sun, further reducing operating costs.

Despite delays due to cold weather, the plant is still on track to be substantially complete in May, and we are hoping to start production of our first machines in this new facility at the end of June.