P1 News

From Cheese to Freeze: Troy Stewart Finds Rewarding Career in Ammonia Refrigeration

Industrial Ammonia Refrigeration Technician Troy Stewart is the father of three little girls, who most certainly keep him on his toes. And that’s probably a good skill to have when you work in ammonia service, one of the most highly regulated, and dangerous, segments of our industry.

The career path that led the Wisconsin native to P1 Group began with the iconic staple of America’s Dairyland: cheese.

The rugged terrain of Wyoming is where Derby, Kansas, native Eric Williams finds himself these days. Eric has now been a Wyoming resident for five years, and it all started when he joined P1 Group as an HVAC technician.

P1 Group’s Kindred Biosciences Production Expansion project was born from customer relationship building and a solid example of P1 teamwork across many trades and services.

KindredBio, a pet biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco, took over an older pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Elmwood, KS, and will soon manufacture drugs there for companion animals like cats, dogs and horses.

When P1 Group Proactive Solutions Consultant Ann L. went on a cold call with Churchill Container, she learned they were getting ready to relocate their operations to a new facility.

Even though Churchill’s mechanical work was covered by another contractor, Ann told them about P1 Group’s additional capabilities and the client expressed interest in having our Millwright and Electrical experts look over their new plant.

Do you have a project with equipment needs beyond P1 Group’s typical trade skills? Are there heavy, complex pieces of machinery being moved or set? Are major conveyor systems involved? Do you need to construct a pre-fabricated office or erect a storage mezzanine? Is equipment or a structure being demolished?

The Millwrights can handle it.

LENEXA, Kan. – P1 Group is responding to new OSHA regulations by providing customers with updated information on how to proactively convert and replace HVAC systems.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a phase-out of the production and importation of ozone-depleting substances under the Clean Air Act. The act calls for the former industry-standard refrigerant R-22 to be phased-out. R-22 will not be produced anymore in the U.S. after Jan. 1, 2020.

LAWRENCE, Kan. – P1 Group‘s fabrication shop is taking on more panel fabrication work and recently landed a significant contract to build room pressure reference panels for a lab client.

These panels track the pressures in a room space versus a neutral space and/or an adjacent room’s space for the building automation system. This ensures that rooms hold their negative or positive pressures when doors are opened, fume hoods are used and heating/ cooling systems ramp up or slow down.

Chase Serrault, a P1 apprentice, won top honors in the HVAC portion of the UA District 4 contest earlier this month in St. Paul, Minn.

He is the first Local 441 apprentice and the first from Topeka Service to place first and move on to the International Contest, which will be held in August in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Congratulations to Kyle Cullen and Andrew Maginness on winning state craft competitions in pipefitting and HVAC, respectively.

The purpose of these competitions is to see how well unions across the country are learning different skills and to improve skills overall as a trade.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Recently, Schultz Industrial awarded P1 Group with the Saguaro Distillation Facility Project in Henderson, Nevada. The facility produces distilled water utilizing steam generated by the power plant, which will supply distilled water for local businesses’ use.

The project scope consists of the installation process, utility piping, and valves that complete the project assembly to produce distilled water. Detailed design drawings were provided by engineering firm, Sargent & Lundy. The project is being assembled with carbon steel, stainless steel, HDPE, and EPDM pipe, distilling units, pumps, heat exchangers, engineered piping supports, and the steam accessories. The systems that are being installed by P1 Group consist of: steam, raw water makeup, cooling water, condenser water, instrument air, distilled water to tank farm, and reverse osmosis water.

LAWRENCE, Kan.  - Aquatherm Pipe has published a case study on a project at Berry Global, which was completed by P1 Group.

Berry’s Lawrence plant produces food-grade plastic cups and containers, operating 24/7 all year long. The plant uses an injection molding system and the steel piping that circulated cooling water was corroding, slowing the process down.

P1 Group’s millwright project at Magna Excelsior Springs involved the demolition of three existing storage and retrieval systems and replacing them with new structures. The towers weighed 9,000 pounds and each one had to be operating before the next system could be removed.

P1 provided flexible labor hours to work with Magna to provide efficient and cost saving concepts.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – P1 Group has been awarded the mechanical, electrical and plumbing work with Epstein Global at a new Daily’s Premium Meats facility in St. Joseph.

The 100,000 square-foot facility will produce Daily’s sliced-to –order smoked bacon. Daily’s currently has plants in Missoula, Mont., and Salt Lake City, Utah.

LENEXA, Kan. - Five P1 ammonia refrigeration technicians have been trained to respond to ammonia spills and other emergencies through the HAZWOPER (Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response) 40 Hour training developed by OSHA.

Dan Shoemaker, Dan Holloway, Jamar Jackson, Ricky Rohaus and Chad Moreland attended the training along with Lewis Ellington of Schreiber Foods, a P1 customer.