Cornell University in Ithaca, New York had a renovation project for its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences dairy plant. This project required custom stainless steel beams to support the new glass facade.
Cornell’s Unique Dairy Plant
Cornell University has a very unique feature on campus, The Cornell Dairy Processing Plant. This fully licensed plant supports research programs, processes mill from the Cornell dairy herd, and supplies dairy products to the campus and surrounding areas in Ithaca. Hence, the 12,200 square foot dairy plant is a centerpiece for undergraduate and graduate instruction in food sciences, research and production.
According to the University, the dairy produces approximately 140,000 gallons of milk, 20,000 gallons of ice cream and 4,000 gallons of yogurt a year. With this amount of food science and production taking place in the dairy plant, it was very important to choose a corrosive and bacterial resistance material in construction. So the material for this job is stainless steel.
Project Details
The project consisted of a glass façade with stainless steel supports that would withstand the dairy environment. Due to this, it features over 29,000 pounds of custom laser fused profiles out of 304/L stainless steel. The stainless steel beams furthermore have a depth of eight inches with three inch flanges. Afterwards, they were polished to a #4 finish to meet building specifications. In total, there are 42 beams that are thirty feet long to support the glass façade.
This project also had time constraints. So Cornell would only have to shut down the dairy for as little time as possible. Stainless Structurals and partners were able to complete this task. The custom stainless steel beams were produced, polished and delivered to the University jobsite in the allotted time frame. Hence, they were able to meet the project deadline.
Stainless Needs
This project is just one example of how constructors and designers need stainless steel special shapes. There is no better material to withstand corrosion and hold up under extreme conditions. No other material can compete with stainless steel in life-cycle costs. Contact Stainless Structurals America today for your next stainless application.
