Industrial applications carry their own unique challenges. Designing these facilities often involves the placement of massive pieces of equipment and/or providing access to areas that only birds can reach, all with the end user’s needs in mind. But accounting for and supporting necessary loads is only part of the equation. The best design also allows for optimum work flow and functionality, both of which are essential elements in ensuring that the client has the best product for their operations.

In other situations, renovation and modification of existing facilities are the issues. With the retrofit of existing processes comes an additional host of issues and questions: How do we get the old pieces of equipment out? How will we get the new ones in? Will the floor support the weight? How will we support these new devices? Can the roof support this new load? With the rat’s nest of utilities above this area, where - and how - will we find space to put in a new mezzanine to house this equipment?

TLF’s primary business objective is to look for and obtain opportunities to answer these questions. Sometimes the answers involve extreme measures, such as the removal of structural members that would seem to guarantee a collapse of the building, and without TLF’s technical guidance, might actually do so. In other situations, the answer may be a simple recommendation letter, confirming by our analysis that the structure can carry the additional loads. Whatever the case, we investigate and dig through the details, ensuring that our response provides the best, most cost-effective solution to the issue at hand.

Since 1991, TLF has been called upon by owners, plant managers and support staff to address these types of design challenges, and to answer the how-to questions of retrofit. Why? Experience has a lot to do with it, but so does our approach. We meet with the client, we ask questions, and we listen. And then we put in the grunt work needed to understand the issues and to devise the best solution. From the construction of new facilities to complicated processes involving renovations, relocations or expansions, we’ve been there. From locally owned shops to global corporations, we make it work.