The article was printed in The Shelbyville News on February 18, 2008.

Creative Engineering

Knauf's $240M expansion gains top honor for engineering innovation
NEWS staff report


    The engineering work by Applied Engineering Services, Inc. on the Knauf Insulation Plant 1 Expansion project that was completed in 2007 received the Grand Project award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Indiana during its annual Engineering Excellence Awards gala held on Feb. 2 in Indianapolis.

The engineering work on the expansion project on Knauf Insulation Plant 1 has received the Grand Project Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Indiana.

The award was received this month by Knauf and Applied Engineering Services, Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects and Fink Roberts & Petrie Inc. at the 20th Annual ACEC of Indiana Engineering Excellence Awards gala in Indianapolis.

The ACEC Engineering Excellence Awards are presented each year to recognize "innovation, expertise and ingenuity in engineering achievement." The submitted projects are judged on original or innovative application of new or existing techniques, future value to the engineering profession, perception by the public, social, economic and sustainable design considerations, complexity and meeting or exceeding the client's needs.

The expansion project at Knauf was completed in the fall of 2007 for a total cost of approximately $240 million. It began as a modernization and expansion project to replace outdated process and utility equipment while increasing plant capacity by 33 percent. A project objective was also to minimize fossil fuel use and reduce waste projects from the plant.

The project included the construction of a 375,000 square-foot product warehouse, a new utility and chemical compounding plant, a 42 MW substation, a furnace charge batching silo, an upgraded rail yard, an electric-fired cold top glass furnace, three production lines with fiberization, forming and drying ovens, a wet electrostatic precipitator, regenerative thermal oxidizers, wash water recycle systems and new packaging lines.


Members of Knauf Insulation, Applied Engineering Services, Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects and Fink Roberts & Petrie Inc. accepted an award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Indiana at the 20th Annual AES of Indiana Engineering Excellence Awards ceremony in Indianapolis on Feb. 2. Pictured (back row, from left) Bill Pfeiffer (Fink Roberts & Petrie), Kevin Cork (Knauf), Brian Karns (Knauf), Buddy Combs (Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf) and Greg Jacoby (Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf); (front row, from left) Kerry Van Arsdel (Knauf), Darrell Webb (Knauf), Frank St. John (AES), Bill Ellerbe (AES) and Mike Natali (Fink Roberts & Petrie). 
Applied Engineering was the prime consultant for most the Knauf expansion project's engineering and the company was responsible for coordination of sub-consultant design work and integration engineering of numerous OEM systems purchased directly by Knauf.

Applied Engineering provided the engineering for the process mechanical and piping, HVAC, plumbing, electrical instrumentation and controls design and was responsible for the overall site planning and development, including access roads, parking lots , utility relocation and improvements, fire protection and landscaping.

Sub consultants Fink Roberts & Petrie Inc. performed the civil and structural design, and Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects provided the site planning and architectural services.

Applied Engineering Services is an Indianapolis-based consulting engineering firm providing mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering services. The company focuses on facilities and utilities engineering for industrial, higher education, governmental and healthcare clients.

Knauf, the second-largest employer in Shelbyville, elected to expand its Shelbyville facility instead of moving operations to another state, retaining jobs for the local economy.

Knauf provides insulation to a worldwide market and has manufacturing operations in Europe, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States with an annual sales revenue of more than $1.5 billion. Knauf employs 1,250 people in the United States alone.

ACEC Indiana is a professional trade association which represents the business interests of the consulting engineering profession. The annual engineering excellence awards are intended to provide recognition to engineering firms for their work at the state level, and as a Grand Project Award winner, the Knauf expansion project will compete at the national level. Only one Grand Project award is presented by ACEC Indiana each year, and it is intended to "recogize an outstanding engineering achievement that demonstrates a high degree of merit and ingenuity."

Honor awards were received by Indiana companies for the Speedway Redevelopment Master Plan, the Indiana University Bradford Woods Wastewater Treatment System Replacement Project, Utility Relocations at Riley Hospital for Children, the Community Hospital North Expansion, the City of Indianapolis Consolidation of Combined Sewer Overflow, the Spring Street Bridge Rehabilitation Project in Floyd and Clark counties and the Construction Engineering for the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River.