INTRODUCTION

American Aerogel, a company developing and manufacturing proprietary aerogel insulation products, had been growing rapidly and needed to expand its production capabilities.

Because demand for its product was so high, American Aerogel’s 24/7 operation required new equipment with process improvements to increase production and improve efficiencies.

Because American Aerogel’s products are made with a proprietary one-of-a-kind aerogel called Aerocore, maintaining confidentiality of the products’ chemical makeup and patented manufacturing processes was/is of the utmost importance. Optimation continues to honor this confidentiality.

SOLUTION

American Aerogel brought Optimation in early on to assess the existing production equipment, processes and available space to increase capability to remove and recover solvents from their products. Optimation developed drawings with the layout of the new and relocated production equipment and associated services.

Optimation’s skilled trades team, comprised of millwrights, pipe fitters, riggers, electrical and instrumentation mechanics completed installation of all production equipment and associated components. In addition to installing new equipment, mechanics made modifications to existing services to increase capacity. Services included electricity, steam, compressed air and nitrogen supplies, condensate return and process vapor recovery.

Optimation also assembled and installed all instrumentation/control cabinets. Optimation lead debug and startup of all installed systems.

RESULTS

After this project was completed, production capacity increased significantly. The addition of instrumentation and improved access to the process information, improving productivity and product quality.