Ductmate Partners with AMS to Build New Gen7 Concept House

Posted on by Ductmate Industries

Ductmate Industries has teamed with American Modular Systems (AMS) to build a Gen7 Concept House on a 50-acre working vineyard in Lodi Wine Country. Designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification, River Vine Vineyards will be one of the most advanced, high-end prefabricated residences ever constructed—a state-of-the-art smart home that will take sustainable prefabricated design and construction to the next level. The Zero Net Energy building will integrate renewable energy systems, environmentally friendly materials, and cutting-edge products in a home that is livable, functional, and energy-independent, utilizing both solar and geothermal technologies to produce as much energy as it consumes over the course of a year.

“Ductmate Industries will be instrumental in making River Vine the inspirational building we know it can be,” said Tony Sarich, owner of River Vine and co-founder of AMS and Gen7 Schools. “Quality products like Ductmate’s are essential to our energy-saving strategies, because they’re sustainably made, highly efficient and hold up to daily use over the building’s long lifecycle.”

According to Sarich, River Vine will showcase a 21st-century living environment, combining modern design elements, advanced technology and modular building science within a sustainable footprint that meets multifunctional needs. The home will be fully automated, with all systems, appliances and electrical components networked for centralized control from a single touchpoint. This concept can be replicated in future Gen7 classrooms and other buildings.

Construction on River Vine has begun at the AMS factory in Manteca and is expected to be completed by next summer.

For more information, visit the River Vine website.

PROseal Spray Duct Sealant Shortens Application Time by 50%

Sprayable HVAC duct sealant - PROseal Spray

Posted on by Ductmate Industries

Studies and testing have demonstrated that heating and cooling systems can lose up to 30% of their efficiency due to leaks in the duct joints and seams. One solution is to seal the ductwork at the joints with gasket material supplied by the manufacturer. Another is the application of duct sealant that can be applied at the joints as well as duct seams for a tight connection.

New standards in the building industry now require all ducting to be sealed to prevent air leakage. Not only does it save energy, low leakage reduces the load on the heating and cooling equipment.

Scott Schindler, owner of Schindler Heating & A/C, Inc., runs his business in Boonville, IN. For over 15 years he has installed and serviced air conditioning and heating equipment in southern Indiana.

Schindler has four employees and works primarily on residential and light commercial housing. As a businessman, he believes every job he does gets 110% of his efforts—a main reason he is the HVAC installer choice for many of the largest builders in his area.

Schindler has used Ductmate’s PROseal mastic for many years. Like most duct sealants, it is applied manually and can take an entire day to finish one house. The results were always good, but if you are not careful you can wear as much as you apply.

While picking up materials at Wilhite Supply Co, his local Ductmate distributor, Schindler was introduced to PROseal Spray, Ductmate’s premium water-based, high velocity duct sealant that can be applied using a wide range of sealant application equipment. It was love at first sight!

“I’m somewhat of a tool nut and am interested in anything mechanical,” said Schindler. “The fact that you can apply duct sealant using a spray system really intrigued me; five minutes later I was a believer.”

Schindler had investigated other brands of spray mastics as well but found one major problem. Most sealant manufacturers strongly recommended using their spray system. These systems cost on average $7,500 a unit, a greater investment than he wanted to make.

“We found out that Ductmate’s PROseal Spray can be used with a variety of spray systems with no problems in application or performance,” said Schindler. “In the end I purchased a sprayer for $1,700, and that was even for a slightly better unit than I needed.”

Christian Nauman, Sealants & Adhesives Product Line Manager for Ductmate, says ProSeal® Spray offers contractors benefits other than speed of application. “Ductmate formulated ProSeal® Spray as an extension of our manually-applied ProSeal® product,” said Nauman. “Both are designed to seal metal and metal joints against air leaks in low, medium, and high pressure duct systems up to 15” w.g.”

ProSeal® is a premium water-based high-velocity duct sealant that is non-flammable with a low odor and low VOC off-gassing. This is important for contractors working in tight spaces for prolonged periods of time.

ProSeal® Spray has excellent adhesion to all types of metals, and will not drip or sag under normal application conditions. The sealant has a very low shrinkage rate and remains permanently flexible over the life of the product. It is also UV, water and mildew resistant, and can be used on painted latex or epoxy finishes.

Upon using the PROseal Spray for the first time Schindler said he was a little apprehensive it would work as promised because of the viscosity of mastic. It didn’t take long to convince him otherwise.

“Our sprayer has a 150 foot hose allowing us to reach most of the house without moving the unit,” Schindler remarked. “We can finish an entire house in 30 minutes compared to an entire day using manual application.”

Many of the builders Schindler works with construct Energy Star homes. These buildings have to pass strict requirements minimizing air leakage for the building as well as the HVAC ducting. Schindler sprays all seams and joints with PROseal Spray with great success.

Schindler says his duct installations always pass with ease, and the inspector says his work is the best he has ever seen.

Once finished, the spray unit must be cleaned before the mastic hardens. Schindler says all that is needed are a few gallons of hot water that he runs through the sprayer until it runs clear. Since PROseal Spray is water-based, no harsh cleaners are required.

In addition to duct sealing, Schindler has found another use for the product. With PROseal Spray’s excellent adhesive qualities, he uses it to seal holes and cracks in the building that he may come across in places like crawl spaces.

New Polyester Duct Liner Insulation Less Expensive & Reduces Installation Time

PolyArmor™ Duct Liner

Posted on by Ductmate Industries

Schreiber Foods is constructing a new corporate headquarters and global technology center in downtown Green Bay, Wisconsin. Founded in Green Bay in 1945, it is the world’s largest employee-owned dairy company. Its $50 million headquarters building spans 235,000 sq ft and reaches five stories high, featuring primarily office space. When completed, it will employ approximately 550 people in the greater Green Bay area.

The firm Hammel, Green and Abrahamson (HGA, Inc.) is an integrated architecture, engineering, and planning company responsible for designing the HVAC system, along with other mechanical systems, for the Schreiber Foods Project. HGA Senior Mechanical Engineer and Vice President Kevin Pope is the Engineer of Record on the project.

“For most ducting projects of this type, we typically specify a polyimide foam liner for the supply ducting and a fiberglass liner for the return,” Pope said. “The reason for this is any fibers coming off the fiberglass liner are captured in the air handling filtration system before it reenters the supply air. It’s also a way to keep costs down since fiberglass is less expensive and offers reasonable sound attenuation.”

The polyimide foam is typically coated with an acrylic-type polymer when used as a duct liner. The coating provides a protective barrier against dust and moisture from collecting in the duct. However, one of the drawbacks of polyimide foam is that it can be more expensive than other materials.

F. Ahern Co. is the mechanical contractor for the project, responsible for the sheet metal and other mechanical systems. J.F. Ahern Project Manager Shaun Neubauer has he need to control project costs as one of his primary functions.

“It’s part of my job to control project costs, so I begin immediately looking for alternative material choices,” Neubauer said. “We noticed immediately that the polyimide foam cost was coming in rather high, and we began investigating alternative duct liner material. We had an opportunity to meet with Ductmate Industries to compare their new PolyArmor polyester-based liner material.”

PolyArmor is new to the market, having been introduced only one and a half years ago. It is a polyester duct liner insulation used in forced-air heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. It is engineered to provide industry-leading R-values, with excellent noise reduction and superior indoor air quality.

The polyester material is webbed into a thermal blanket, which is then bonded with an FSK facing to resist damage during system installation and operation. It also provides excellent durability in the airstream.

Neubauer said the PolyArmor met the specification requirements, and he was pleasantly surprised with the cost estimate. Since the polyimide was specified, he submitted the PolyArmor cost saving and specifications to Pope and requested a substitution, which was approved.

F. Ahern and Neubauer have a long history working with Ductmate. Quite often, they specify other Ductmate products, such as access doors, connectors, and vane systems. Their relationship was a key factor in their decision to install the new PolyArmor liner material.

More emphasis was placed on noise reduction than on insulation values, although both were important. The PolyArmor proved excellent for sound attenuation, achieving a .65 NRC rating, while also delivering an R5 insulation value in one-inch material thickness.

Duct sizes vary, with dimensions up to 6’ by 3’, and they can handle an airflow of up to 80,000 CFM. The specifications called for the PolyArmor to be installed approximately 20’ downstream from each VAV discharge connection.

J.F. Ahern Shop Manager Chris Elwing was impressed with the installation performance of PolyArmor. With over 31 years of experience in the sheet metal industry, 13 of those with J.F. Ahern, he has seen his share of duct insulation.

“We install all duct liners at the shop and have had to use an elastomeric-type product for many of our installations,” Elwing said. “Elastomeric material is tough to work with because it’s hard to cut and shape into place. We had never used the PolyArmor liner before and discovered that it installs much faster and is easy to pin; it greatly reduced our man hours on the project.”

Elwing estimated that they installed 25,000 sq ft of the liner material, all of which was installed by hand using no coil machine. Even with the additional labor time required, he cut his installation time by 30% or more!

PolyArmor liner is installed on the duct surface using water-based adhesives. This eliminates the need for solvent-based bonding agents that emit VOCs for many years after installation. The polyester base material does not promote or support the growth of mold or mildew, making it very desirable for a healthy environment and occupant safety.

The net result was even better than expected.

“Not only did we reduce costs for the liner material, we saved another 30% on installation time, which is significant,” Neubauer commented.

Both companies agree they will use PolyArmor on future projects.

Introducing the 16×12 Double-Paned Observation Access Door

Posted on by Ductmate Industries

The 16×12 double-paned observation access door is now available!

This door was designed specifically for hospitals, clean rooms, pharmaceuticals, and laboratories to eliminate the danger of dust contaminating ductwork during inspections of in-duct smoke detectors, UVC emitters, fire and smoke dampers, and humidifiers.

Read more about this newest addition to the Sandwich® Access Door line here.

High-Ceiling Project Makes Spiralmate Round Connector System a Must

Spiralmate completing a round duct connection

Posted on by Ductmate Industries

The North Shore Marine Transfer Station is located in College Point near New York City and LaGuardia Airport. It is expected to open in the spring of 2013 and will transport approximately 3,000 tons of garbage from the Queens borough by barge to landfills each day.

The facility is enclosed to limit bird attraction, which can be very detrimental to airplane traffic at nearby LaGuardia Airport. It was the birds, after all, that were sucked into both engines of Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s airplane caused him to ditch in the East River. The North Shore transfer station is only 735 yards from one of LaGuardia’s runways.

The spiral duct manufacturer on the project is Southern Tier Custom Fabrication, located in Elmira, New York. Southern Tier has been a loyal user of Ductmate products for many years, especially the Spiralmate® round duct connector system. Southern Tier Vice President Ian Morrell is very proud of the company’s relationship with Ductmate.

“We really believe in Ductmate’s innovative approach, especially with products like Spiralmate,” Morrell said. “They are easy to install and are real time savers in the shop and in the field.”

Morrell also stated that the company has been incorporating the Ductmate line into its fabrication process for approximately 30 years. He said they are also installing contractors, although not on this particular project.

Because the North Shore Transfer Station is a marine facility, it is naturally in a corrosive environment. The saltwater air will eventually start corroding any steel product, including galvanized spiral ducting. The project was specified with 316 stainless steel to counter the corrosive seawater environment and any toxic off-gassing from the trash.

Stainless steel is also very expensive, almost five times that of regular steel, and Morrell emphasized that the spiral ducting must be installed correctly and without any damage.

Morrell said Ductmate offers its Spiralmate in a variety of materials, including galvannealed, aluminized, 304 stainless, 316 stainless, and PVC-coated. Additionally, the Spiralmate features a sealing mastic in the pocket of the flange, eliminating the need for manual sealant application during assembly. Ductmate guarantees the flange will seal from 18’’ positive to 10’’ negative w.g. The mastic is non-hardening and non-drying and will not crack when transported to the shop site by truck.

The sheet metal contractor on the project is Delta Sheet Metal Corporation, located in Long Island City, NY. Delta is part of PJ Mechanical, a mechanical contractor founded in 1971 that serves the greater New York City real estate market.

Delta Sheet Metal Senior Project Manager Jacob Pierides noted that the installation differed from typical spiral projects.

The overall size of the facility measures 260’ by 215’ and consists of three levels. The tipping floor, approximately 26’ above the pier, is where the large trash trucks enter and unload their waste. The waste falls to the loading section 10’ below, where heavy equipment collects and tamps the trash into compact bundles. These trash bundles are then loaded onto barges 16’ lower at the pier level, where they are taken for eventual burial.

The facility requires constant ventilation due to the unpleasant odor of refuse and exhaust gases from the trucks. Due to the high volume of ventilation required, the facility features 28 fans, with 18 located on the mezzanine level. These 18 fans are all connected to the spiral ducting with runs along the station ceiling.

In all, approximately 3,800 linear feet of stainless spiral ducting was installed at the transfer station in a variety of sizes from 10” to 62”, with 1,400 feet sized at 52”. Over 1,200 stainless steel Spiralmate connectors of all sizes were used to attach the ducting.

The highest point in the trash facility is 62’, making the installation rather treacherous at times! For ductwork 42” or less in diameter, Pierides said the sections were manufactured in 10-foot lengths. Ductwork above 42” in diameter was manufactured in 5 long sections. All sections were assembled piece by piece in the air.

“Spiralmate made it easier to connect spiral ductwork 60 feet up in the air,” Pierides mentioned. “The one-bolt closure band accelerates installation time in the field compared to bolting the flanges together. Using Spiralmate connections helped with the production and quality of the spiral ductwork installation.”

He said that by using Spiralmate connections, they did not have to add any additional stiffeners to the duct. That made production in the shop and installation in the field more efficient. It also made it safer by reducing the possibility of a section accidentally coming loose while workers were in the air.

Pierides also concluded that the Spiralmate duct connectors helped maintain the spiral ducting’s shape.  Using Spiralmate connections made the installation of the spiral ducts on this project possible. It allowed the spiral duct to maintain its shape after installation by adding rigidity to the overall structural product.