One of the most interesting jobs in the New York area is 61 Bond Street in Brooklyn. The building itself is being constructed directly over subway lines, so the whole structure has to be isolated and the mechanical systems in the interconnected piping pose problems as well. The Structural Engineering firm handling the building isolation is W.S.P. Cantor Seinuk and the Mechanical Services by Thomas Polise Consulting Engineers. Both firms are working with the Acoustician, Cerami & Associates represented by Ian Bromilow.
While the frequency and general method of supporting both the structure and the mechanical systems are designated by Cerami & Associates, we were very happy to host this group of engineers from Thomas Polise. Time was running late when we took the photo, so some of the engineers are still holding copies of our suggested HVAC Vibration Isolation Specifications, Bulletin VCS-100.
Most engineers never get a chance to visit factories, so the opportunity to see our structural steel work going on, molding of rubber mountings and pads and the building of rubber expansion joints under one roof provided a unique experience.
We had a great discussion about vibration isolation, our specification recommendations and ways to avoid common vibration and noise problems. They made my job a lot easier by being very engaging and asking a lot of questions. Doug Valerio continued the meeting with a discussion about our different approach in the design and application of stainless steel vee’s and expansion joints. They had not realized we have many Professional Engineers on our Certification Team that look at the job “as built” rather than “as drawn”, and able to solve the field problems as they actually occur on risers and horizontal runs, regardless of piping size. Our professional submittals make approvals easier for the Mechanical Consultant.
It is up to the Mechanical Consultant often in conjunction with the Acoustician, to specify the type of materials that they would like to see used. But it is only when the job is in motion that specifics can be dealt with and we have been doing that for almost 60 years.
The Polise engineers had an opportunity to look at a group of SLR-164 4” deflection mountings with capacities of 8,400 lbs. each. The restraining bolts virtually never short out because of the high horizontal resistance of our large outside diameter springs. Horizontal spring resistance is in the order of 80% of the vertical.
Many people do not realize that in our Mercer Division we build rubber expansion joints up to a maximum 16 ft. in diameter for all sorts of applications in wind tunnels, industrial plants and boiler rooms all over the world. This 7 ft. diameter, 30” face to face expansion joint is normally filled with water rather than engineers.
Thanks to the Thomas Polise engineers for spending their afternoon with us.
Please give us a call if you and your group would like to stop in and say hello and meet our team. We would love to show you around our interesting facility. Of course if you cannot make it out to Hauppauge we would be happy to visit your office. Either way, lunch is on us.
We look forward to seeing you soon.
