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| Karges Furniture
Furniture manufacturer saves over $200,000 in HVAC retrofit with Fabric Ductwork.
EVANSVILLE, IN - After spending thousands of dollars annually maintaining its leaky and antiquated boiler and radiant heat piping system, Karges Furniture, decided replacement would be more cost efficient.
In fact, the 115-year-old furniture manufacturing building’s piping had become so unreliable, that the heating system was routinely shut down at night to prevent after hours pipe breaks which could damage Karges’ in-progress furniture pieces - all handmade works of art.
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The maintenance expenses combined with poor temperature control and production floor downtime to repair constant pipe breaks finally prompted management to find a solution. “Over the years we cut off and capped so many leaking rotted sections of pipes that eventually we didn’t have anywhere for the heat from the boiler to go,” said David Woolston, production manager. “During wintertime operation, early morning start-ups took us sometimes half a week to reach an adequate temperature of 65°F.”
The high tech fabric ductwork makes the system totally unique and the most cost effective. Fabric duct, which disperses air gently through linear diffusers, has proven to be more conducive to furniture sanding and lacquering. Too high an air flow in furniture production can also stir up dust that affects finish quality during sanding or dry out glazing prematurely before the finisher has a chance to rub it out, according to Groeninger.
In concept, the system was an excellent solution; however Karges quickly found out that all brands of fabric duct are not all the same. In only three weeks, Woolston and Groeninger noticed the white fabric duct that was factory engineered by the original duct manufacturer, European-based turned yellow. Months later the fabric began ripping. After almost two years the fabric duct was unusable because of tearing. “It looked more like confetti than fabric duct,” quipped Woolston.
An independent research laboratory later discovered that the original duct fabric was nylon instead of the polyester blend originally displayed in a sales presentation. “The lab tests indicated that the nylon failed because it is hydroscopic and the thread count was too lightweight for the specified air velocity,” added Woolston.
Woolston and Groeninger decided to stay with the fabric duct concept, because they had witnessed its success in other industrial applications. Using money awarded in an out-of-court settlement with the European-based fabric duct manufacturer, Karges switched to DuctSox, Dubuque, IA-based manufacturer of several grades of fabric including its TufTex™.
“We compared the failed fabric duct to what we have now and there’s a noticeable difference,” Groeninger said. “The TufTex has a four times heavier thread count; it isn’t hydroscopic, and the stitching is much more durable.”
DuctSox also customized fabric duct’s linear mesh vents, to diffuse air at 9 and 3 o’clock positions. The previous ductwork was more drafty with half-inch holes on 65 percent of the duct at the 8 and 4 o’clock positions whereas DuctSox dispersion method of linear mesh vents is a slit that runs the entire length of the duct with the exception of fabric elbows, tees, and end caps. “We obviously had a lot of design questions after the first failure,” Groeninger noted, “but the engineers from DuctSox and R.L. Craig Co. answered everything and helped make the second system a more customized air distribution system than the first.”
“What we liked about DuctSox is that they kept asking us for our input, whereas the first company dictated everything themselves and wound up not following their original bid,” said Woolston. “Our company’s reputation is based on quality and fixing anything the customer doesn’t think is right, so we were surprised when the first duct company gave us the wrong product and then just walked away from it.”
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