Natural Factors

Project Summary

Amino acids, antioxidants, fish oil, men’s and women’s vitamins, protein supplements and probiotics are just the beginning of Natural Factors product offerings. With both a Canadian facility in Coquitlam, British Columbia and their new, state of the art facility in Monroe, Washington Natural Factors is positioned for growth in the nutraceutical and supplement industries. Part of their story begins with their decision to support the US market by taking advantage of an existing facility, engineering within its four walls a new ‘Mechanical Tower’ resulting in a stand-alone manufacturing facility capable of manufacturing and packaging hundreds of different products sold in the USA.

Starting in 2012 Kevin Pike with Andgar Corporation (www.andgar.com) began working with Natural Factors construction superintendent and design team, to design a new supply and ventilation system that could meet Natural Factors multiproduct manufacturing needs. Having visited Natural factor’s Canadian facility, it became evident that the selected building could not structurally handle the mechanical weight load. To resolve the issue the design team decided it made sense to build a structural tower inside the facility to support the mechanical and electrical requirements of the new production facility. Due to the number of isolated blending and packaging areas Andgar utilized variable air volume units that could modulate the inlet air and direct the dust laden air towards the appropriate cartridge collector. Due to successful experiences working with Jim Bradley of Air Associates, Kevin contacted Jim and invited him to participate in the project.

Outcome

Utilizing a vfd (variable frequency drive) to maintain a constant air volume (and pressure) as the Optiflo’s cartridges load with dust, the variable air volume (vav) units direct suction to each production room insuring each space’s pressure and thus cleanliness. The result is a clean, safe and low energy system that gives Natural Factors years of production service life at the lowest cost of ownership.

For further information about AAF dust collection capabilities, contact your local AAF Representative.