Anchoring Equipment

[38°]

Has anyone out there been required to anchor the still, or fermenters, or boiler? If so, how did you do it? Or, argued successfully against it?

Thank you!

[Mechengineer_81]

When i worked for a process mechanical contractor we did a lot of equipment anchoring in many different jurisdictions. Everyone was different based on seismic zone, and the local jurisdiction requirements. I highly suggest using stainless anchors in a wash-down environment to avoid rust stains around the bases of your shiny stainless. the rule of thumb i was told by one structural engineer was that any stationary equipment with a center of gravity over 4 feet and 400 pounds should be anchored. this is probably worst case, as California and Alaska are the two worst states i have worked in for anchorage requirements. Also, Stationary is a key word as well. I have seen a lot of larger equipment such as CIP skids and pachaging equipment not be anchored if it was supplied with wheels or was listed as mobile equipment. 

I have seen a lot of variance in anchorage specifications based on the PE stamping the design. Some are very cautious and some are less cautious. I suggest making sure your structural engineer is very comfortable with anchorages of the type of equipment as a over cautious structural engineer can have a huge impact on the cost of that anchorage.

Most jurisdictions will also be OK with the manufacturers recommendation on anchorage as well in lieu of having a stamping structural engineer calculate if you can get the manufacturer to supply the anchorage detail. I always told clients to try and get the equipment manufacturer to supply the anchorage details as it was usually cheaper than hiring a PE to calc locally. I ran into this with some Italian brewing equipment that came with anchorage details. 

most permitted anchorages have some sort of inspection, either active while anchoring for epoxy type anchors or after the fact torque tests from mechanical type anchors.

Self performed work is usually less scrutinized than contractor performed work.

PM me if you have any really specific questions. I have installed equipment in about 6 different states so far and they are al differing on their procedures.

 

[captnKB]

I have had to anchor a few stills and fermentors. I always recommend anchoring a cooker as it can walk if it becomes off balance.

Anchors are not expensive nor difficult to set. Stainless anchors with Hilti expoxy is my go to. Size and specs will vary depending on the equipment.

If you need some guidance shoot me an email or message. Distillerynow@gmail.com

[SlickFloss]

Stainless tapcons are a blessing around here but a few years ago we switched our tanks to loadcells and poured all them into footings and now were 20 bushels high society day

[Thatch]

2 hours ago, SlickFloss said:

20 bushels high society day

Hey Nick,

For the uneducated among us (me), what does this mean?

[SlickFloss]

"20 bushels high society all day" is a term that was thrown around a lot by my grandfather it's equivalent to saying "and then we're sitting pretty". Reason he'd say it is we were cooking a lot of corn whiskey (before I was in commercial field) and I was yielding about 2 gallons of etoh per bushel of corn. We made some small changes to our backwoods set up and we started pulling 2.5 to 2.6 gallons/bushel which as a run was really impressive to us. If we did that over 20 bushels we'd end up with around enough for 2 full barrels. I think he got the term high society from moonshine terminology for clean white dog from where he was from. I use it rather loosely in situations where people have altered their processes to increase throughput or efficiency's.

 

Specifically what I was saying is when we switched from anchored tanks to tanks with load cells so we could proof and weigh in tank, we made a change to our facility that really benefitted us.