Tight schedule for the setup of a production plant at Ken's Foods
Ken’s Foods, Inc., incorporated in 1958, is a family-owned retail grocery producer of salad dressings, sauces and marinades. The company manufactures more than 400 varieties under the Ken's Steak House name and other brands, including Sweet Baby Ray’s award-winning barbeque sauce.
To increase production to meet product demands, Ken’s Foods converted warehouse space in its flagship plant in Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA, into a dedicated production plant for the Sweet Baby Ray’s line. Notch Mechanical Constructors installed piping for utilities including non-potable cold water, sanitizing solution, acid solution and a compressed air system using ProPress Stainless. Non-potable hot water lines were installed using ProPress.
Time savings with the right systems
Viega systems had been used before by both Ken's Foods and Notch Mechanical, making the choice an easy one. "The main reason I wanted to have ProPress Stainless and ProPress installed was because we were on a very tight schedule," said Mark Shaye, Senior Project Engineer at Ken’s Foods, who oversees corporate-level capital projects for all the Ken Foods facilities. "We would never have been able to get this finished in our time frame with the same amount of labor using traditional pipe joining methods."
Notch Mechanical’s team installed more than 3,500 feet of stainless-steel piping with more than 500 stainless steel fittings of Viega’s ProPress Stainless system in sizes ranging from ¾" to 3". In addition, they used more than 1,200 feet of copper tubing with more than 75 ProPress fittings in sizes ranging from ½" to 2". "By pressing, we were able to provide at least a 25% time savings," said Nicholas Morin, Project Manager at Notch Mechanical.
Another reason that the Viega systems were installed in the plant was for easy future maintenance. The maintenance department at Ken’s Foods invested in two press tools and a scheduled training on press technology with Viega.
