When the mechanical contracting group of The Trane Company won the bid from McClier Corporation to do the mechanical engineering for the new, state-of-the-art New York Post printing facility, its control design team chose Belimo as its supplier of actuators and valves. The decision was based on Belimo’s reputation for reliable products and timely, all-inclusive customer service.
The new, five-story, 430,000 sq. ft. facility incorporates all of the latest advances in printing and automation technology and relies heavily on climate sensitive electronics. The temperature must be precisely maintained at 72º F., the humidity at 65%, primarily to prevent static electricity. The plant environment could also adversely affect the viscosity of the inks and the integrity of the paper running through the high-speed presses. Even the monster, 50-foot high, 117 foot long, web offset presses could overheat and malfunction if the temperature and humidity were not precisely maintained.
The Belimo Aircontrols’ sales and technical support team was there with Trane’s project management from the beginning, through every stage of construction, to ensure the success of the project. The team worked on the damper and valve schedule, selecting the precise type and size, and made necessary field adaptable design modifications to meet changing job site conditions.
Belimo provided more than a complete range of control valves and damper actuators for the project, which included butterfly valves, globe valves, and Characterized Control™ ball valves – the most advanced control ball valves in the industry – along with more than 200 actuators. Belimo even came up with unique approaches for mounting the actuators on the outside air dampers.
McClier’s project manager, responsible for the mechanical and electrical side of the project, commented that he was very pleased to see the bright orange Belimo actuators when he arrived at the site. He was familiar with them from other projects and knew that they would be reliable in controlling the air and water flow to maintain the temperature and humidity at critical set points.
McClier, headquartered in Chicago with offices in New York City, provided the architectural, engineering, and construction services and will be there for startup of the Post facility, scheduled for early 2001. Trane, headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with offices in Long Island City, New York, provided the three chillers, three cooling towers, four boilers, and 20 air handlers, six of which are Trane’s largest modular climate changers. Trane also provided the digital control system at all critical points to monitor and control the temperature and humidity.
The New York Post, part of Rupert Murdoch’s global media and entertainment News Corporation Limited, has a circulation of more than 550,000 daily and 400,000 Sunday newspapers in the New York metropolitan area.
The new printing and distribution facility in the Port Morris section of the Bronx in New York City, utilizes some of the most sophisticated equipment available to the newspaper business today. The four new Goss Graphic Systems “Postliner,” doublewidth, offset presses give the Post the ability to consistently produce the highest quality color reproduction for its advertisers and readers.
Its business and editorial offices will remain in Midtown Manhattan, at 1211 Avenue of the Americas.