The new Novembal plant in Peoria, AZ, is the result of a 48,907-sf transformation of vacant shell space into manufacturing space for plastic caps and closures for beverages. The plant was relocated from Mexicali, Mexico, and created more than 100 local jobs at the new plant, which produces 25 million plastic caps every day and a total of 13 billion caps each year.

Before the project began, the IMEG team visited Novembal’s facilities in Montreal and Mexicali to meet with the personnel at each site and gain first-hand insight into location-specific processes that allowed them to truly customize a facility based on Novembal’s expressed needs.

IMEG provided mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering and design services for the new facility, conducting major electrical upgrades, designing industrial process cooling systems, and certifying equipment. The design team took special precautions — such as using stainless steel and plastic materials for the process cooling and piping — to ensure the plant met FDA-regulated food processing standards as well as European standards for parent company Tetra Laval Group, located in Switzerland. The team also worked through several challenges, including working with non-U.S. standard voltages on the French-manufactured equipment and working with equipment that was not certified.

Additionally, the industrial manufacturing equipment to be installed in the facility was manufactured for a non-U.S. market and did not meet U.S. UL listing requirements — specifically, the nameplate for the equipment did not have the required information. IMEG prepared nameplates for the electrical equipment that met the requirements of the National Electric Code and modified the electrical system design to make the non-compliant equipment safer. This provided significant savings for the owner, as they did not need to have the equipment inspected and evaluated by a nationally recognized testing laboratory.

The collaborative relationship with the client and general contractor coupled with IMEG’s decades of experience allowed the team to create a truly customized facility.