Page 5 - Graypvine October 2020

in the “kitting room” where highly concentrated be the company’s fourth factory in the United States
raw ingredients are combined with water, sugar or and will expand their production and distribution
other sweeteners in a pre-mix tank until they are capabilities in the Northeastern part of the country.
fully blended. This mixture is pumped into one of (3) The new 625,000 s.f. greenfield facility will include a
10,000 liter mix tanks where it is combined with more warehouse, injection molding space, loading docks,
water and sweetener and mixed again. The finished and a 25,000 s.f. two story office. The facility was
mixture is held while samples are lab tested. Once initially designed for a production capacity of 72
testing is completed, the product is pumped into injection molding machines and we are currently
holding tanks in the production area, where it is kept working on plans to almost double that capacity
until it is pumped to the filler. After the filler, bottles to 139 machines. Gray’s biggest challenge for this
are labeled, laser etched, packaged into cardboard project was dealing with the site that IRIS chose to
boxes and placed on shrink-wrapped pallets for build on. The site was an abandoned mining area that
storage in the on-site warehouse. All steps between sat for several decades and was essentially covered
the pre-mix tank and palletizing are fully automated. with a forest above ground and pits full of water and
Products can be produced in batches as small as springs below ground.
300 liters and as large as 10,000 liters. The system DIAGEO is moving right along. The “building” and 5
is designed so pre-mixing, mixing, pasteurization, the major pieces of equipment have been installed;
product hold, filling and packaging activities occur now all we have to do is hook it all up and make
simultaneously in order to keep the filler operating at it work. Sounds simple, huh? Project Workhorse
a 95-98% efficiency rate. Overall, the production line Update – The Distillery building construction is
is sized to produce between 120 and 160 bottles per nearly complete and the roofing has been installed;
minute depending on the bottle size. the electrical conduit and cable tray installation
The 10,000 s.f. office contains a “demonstration continues and metal stud framing has begun in the
room” which is essentially a full-sized commercial bar, main office. The process utility equipment has been
equipped with extensive A/V capabilities, including installed including the electrode boilers, chillers, air
a photography studio. This space is designed to compressors, and the process utility piping installation
allow new and existing customers to experiment continues. All the distillation equipment has been
with Monin products and flavors in order to develop installed included the (3) cookers, (26) fermenters,
new food and beverage recipes specific to the the beer well, the still equipment and the (6) distillate
individual customer. Space has also been allocated tanks; and the barrel filling equipment will be installed
for the future installation of a full-size commercial next month. We are currently installing the structural
kitchen. This will allow for expanded development of steel in the Dry House, and the evaporator and
customer-tailored recipes and cooking techniques. syrup tank have been set in place. Warehouse #1
Monin and Gray went to great lengths during the foundations are currently being poured.
design process to ensure the finished facility was
unique and provided the customer experience that
their clients expect. Food & Beverage
This was Gray’s first integrated project with InLine with Phil Seale
Executive Vice President,
Engineers who furnished all process and packaging Food & Beverage Market
equipment design and procurement. The project
schedule was 14 months from start of construction to As we all celebrated ringing in
full occupancy and production.
IRIS is about to finish up as well after being 2020, our sights were set high on another record-
delayed for a couple of months. IRIS USA, Inc., a breaking year. We were laser focused on several great Company
subsidiary of IRIS Ohyama is a leading manufacturer opportunities in manufacturing and food & beverage. updates
of high-quality plastic storage containers, cookware, Little did we know that a once in a lifetime pandemic continued
on next
small appliances, pet care items and plastic furniture. was about to rock our world. Customers we were page
The new facility located in Hazleton, Pennsylvania will working with, and some we were still chasing,