Chad Fisher Construction recently completed a flagship aerospace construction project for Janicki Industries. This new facility based in Hamilton, Washington, focuses on the manufacturing of flight-quality, aerospace parts, created from advanced composite materials.
Since the company began in 1993, Janicki has evolved from making molds and tools used for building airplanes, to manufacturing state of the art carbon fiber airplane parts designed for commercial jetliners, military aircraft, and space exploration.
About The Hamilton Plant Construction
This plant is a first of its kind, industrial application constructed to be a contained environment. It is around 90,000 square feet of high bay assembly space and contains four overhead cranes. Featuring 15,000 square feet of highly controlled contamination areas, this plant also includes a 5,000 square-foot drive-in freezer used to store carbon fiber material.
It was constructed over the space of a year using 6,800 cubic yards of concrete, 350,000 lineal feet of rebar (reinforcing steel), more than 100 miles of electrical wire, and around 600 tons of steel.
In addition to the assembly space, contamination areas, and drive-in freezer, the building has been retro-fitted with curing ovens, office space, and mills. Company officials have said that Janicki will be moving all major parts manufacturing to the new Hamilton building, which will free up the existing adjacent 164,00 square-feet facility at the site.
Energy-Efficient Eco-Roof
The facility features several major energy-saving points, one being an eco-roof. The purpose of this is to provide insulation for the building, absorb rainwater, lower surrounding temperature, and reduce the heat island effect. Additionally, it adds a pleasing aesthetic to the building.
State Of The Art HVAC System
The plant also has a state of the art HVAC climate control system which was designed and installed by Air Reps and Nordic Temperature Control who worked together on the project. This new system is crucial for composite fabrication, helping to maintain a constant temperature and humidity. This ensures that materials don’t expand or contract when they absorb moisture or are heated.
Nordic installed a complete Daikin refrigeration system for the plant, the largest of its type in the country and up to 3 times more energy-efficient than the old propane system which they used to run on. 30 Variable Refrigerant Volume (VRV) heat pumps are linked directly to the main computer systems. These provide temperature monitoring capabilities within the facility to ensure that the optimal temperature is present for manufacturing the aerospace carbon fiber parts.
Design and Features
In addition to the above, the new Janicki plant has been equipped and fitted with a variety of other cutting edge features such as:
- 5-axis CNC Zimmerman Mill
- Curing ovens
- A non-destructive inspection machine
- Ply projectors
- An autoclave
- Forklifts
- Vacuum pumps
- Large office spaces for engineers
These new and innovative energy-efficient systems are a step forward for Janicki Industries. The increased space and capacity along with the new equipment in the state of the art plant means the company can increase production to meet the aerospace industry demand.
Creating Opportunities for Skagit County and its Residents
In the old adjacent facility, Janicki’s airplane part manufacturing only made up 10 to 15% of the company’s overall production. The bulk of it focused on molds and other useful tools, usually used by companies to manufacture airplane parts, boat hulls, windmill blades, and other related products.
Increased demand for airplane parts led to the expansion and construction of the new facility. Of course, with expansion comes job creation, and a plant of this size requires a large number of employees and resources to run smoothly. Additionally, jobs were created for the construction itself.
Janicki created an extra 400 jobs within the company for the expansion and new facility. Furthermore, as the company increases its production and overall efficiency, officials say that it will likely employ up to 300 more people in the near future.
For the Skagit County community, this has been an exercise of bringing new employment and career opportunities to the area. The project has been a major source of family-wage jobs, which benefit the economy through indirect and direct spending.
Another key success resulting from the opening of this new Hamilton plant is the significant contributions made to Skagit’s overall GDP.
This successful expansion will also contribute to Skagit County’s importance as a healthy manufacturing region, with a particular focus on the aerospace industry. It is expected that this will likely also attract more companies and jobs in this specific sector.
Outlook For The Facility
President of Janicki Industries, John Janicki has stated that the new facility and equipment will offer customers high quality, consistent services, and products, at the most affordable prices. Neil Morrow, the director of program management at Janicki Industries, expressed his absolute excitement and pride to be helping to grow the aerospace manufacturing industry in Skagit County with this high-class facility.