Examples of Production Drawings

 

Because of my use of paper space and model space in the creation of my drawings, these images are in .pdf document form as the best way to make them viewable on the Internet. This permits them to be created using the normal drawing printing functions of AutoCAD so that all parts of the drawings show up in the finished image. Unfortunately this makes the files larger and slow to load. I now have a .pdf creator which can create the drawings full size but kept to a low 75 dpi so they display better than small size drawings. The .pdf creator that I use has some peculiarities and the colors do not always come out as the drawings are shown in AutoCAD nor as black and white. Normally I set printing conditions so that background (unimportant) items are gray with everything else black. I have assumed that it isn't worth fighting with my .pdf creator to match either true color or normal black and white for the purposes that they are being presented here. I am not a CAD whiz and don't plan to become one. I am simply attempting to give some idea of the range of my design capabilities and the deliverables I have produced. The drawings are selected for their range of work performed and illustration on my breadth of experience. Complete mechanical drawing sets are only shown where it is worth while to illustrate the full project size and my integration into a full A&E design team.

Replacing an air handler built into a wall with a slightly larger and higher capacity one.

 

Air Handler Built into a Wall.

 

Note: Large .pdf files.
This project involved the installation of an air handler behind a finished wall, replacing an existing AHU. It was accessible only through a small service hatch. The new AHU was disassembled and reassembled in place after removing the old unit. Included are AHU modifications, piping schematics with device selections, control schematics with device selections and calibration instructions and notes on construction. The control modifications included the addition of humidity control while simplifying the control system and its maintenance and calibration requirements. This is an early drawing of mine which does not use 3 dimensional modeling but does use model and paper spaces. I used a 1 dimensional model plan with projected side views, rotated to appear correctly in the drawing, and an isometric for the AHU modifications. Now I would just make a 3 dimensional model and look at it from however many directions were required to explain the installation. The project was at the local Anheuser-Busch brewery. This is actually a repeat of a previous identical unit replacement which was done by my own contracting business. For our own installation, we did not do the full drawing set of plans, only sketches to guide my mechanics. The drawing set was made to permit another contractor to perform the same replacement for another unit. For my own company's job, most of the work was done in the shop in advance of the installation. The actual installation was done over one weekend starting on a Friday night with the disassembly and removal of the old unit. The new unit was assembled in place on Saturday and the measurements taken for the fabrication of the duct work. The unit was piped in Saturday night and Sunday while the duct work was fabricated at the shop. The controls were installed during this time period as well. The duct work was assembled connecting the new unit to the old duct and return air intake Sunday afternoon and into the night as time was required. The clean up was performed and the new unit was operational on the next Monday morning when the area opened for business. The worst problem was the small space available and having to swap crews in and out to do the various stages of work, allowing rest periods in between.
This project is the original portion of the installation of a multizone AHU which I first designed for a planned construction date in 1994. The next stage of the extended project follows immediately below. One of the drawings did not successfully migrate from an early version of AutoCAD and another drawing is omitted. The installation was intended for the roof deck but the Manufacturer did not have a suitable penthouse type AHU for the application. The 2 missing drawings covered the sheet metal enclosure which was designed to provide weather protection to the unit and which was not installed. The installation was not actually made until a few years later and at that time, a penthouse multizone unit had become available from a different manufacturer. Fortunately my coil selection was properly translated so that there was adequate capacity as originally designed for the later expansion. The unit was installed on added structural steel designed by a structural engineer and no as built drawings are available, including for duct work revisions to adapt the different AHU design. The basic arrangement was followed, except there were more zone damper sections and one was kept capped as a spare. The pneumatic controls include my original design with PneuModular® controls providing an efficient performance. See this link for a short discussion of how these controls make a hot deck/cold deck multizone into a relatively efficient piece of equipment for energy consumption. Use your browser back button to return to this page or continue navigation from there. This system is installed at the local Anheuser-Busch brewery in Jacksonville, FL.
This project is the middle portion of the installation of a multizone AHU (above) that I started the design for in 1994. The unit was installed a few years after my original design but with a different manufacturer's AHU installed and no as built drawings produced. This work was done in conjunction with a local architectural firm that designed the build out for the space and had to meet the limits of the production design costs allocated for the mechanical work. In this portion of the total job, in the year 2000, two zones have been split to serve a new area with zones 8 and 9. The spare zone will be used for the final portion of another expansion project described next. The original unit was designed with reserve capacity just for this kind of expected expansion. The design of the HVAC portion of the expansion project for the new training rooms at the local Anheuser-Busch Brewery required knowledge of and the combination of results of several previous projects. These training rooms were built to much higher standards of appearance and are used for high level corporate conferences. They had to be done right and handle occupancies from about 10 to over 200 participants, a very wide cooling requirement. This project required the combination of existing original construction drawings from the 60's with two previous projects designed by myself, 1 on paper and the project above designed by CAD, with a recent project on which I provided the HVAC design which had to connect to ducts shown on these drawings. This required scanned drawings traced into a new composite CAD model which combined the multiple source CAD models from previous projects. It would have been desirable to make this a 3 dimensional model, but without the necessary as-built drawings and to remain within production cost limits which did not include time for extensive measurements of existing ducts and making as-built drawings, these were the best drawings I could produce. They do not contain errors. They are however complex and difficult to follow. When I put really big notes to contractors warning them that they must do a complete field inspection of existing work as on these drawings, they are in deep trouble if they ignore my warning and are unfamiliar with working in this plant. If you look at the controls on sheet 4 for zones 8 and 9 you will see that 2 sequenced actuators are used per zone. The first serves to control the zone damper in the normal way. The second serves to make the zone variable volume when the zone load is high, effectively a VAV system for these zones. It worked well so that when the occupancy is low, air volume is low for very quiet performance. When the occupancy is maximum, air volume is increased to handle the load as sound level is less of a problem. Note that this system also makes use of my approach to air distribution of creating a general circulation flow in the space, in this case, the two training rooms. Each half of the training room had to have 2 circulation loops because of a step in the ceiling. If you zoom in look at the drawings expanded to full or over size, you will see how the directional diffusers (3-way instead of 4-way) generate the circulation pattern. See this link to an Interesting Problem for more information about this concept. Use your browser back button to return to this page or continue navigation from there.
This project is the final portion of the installation of a multizone AHU (above) that I started the design for in 1994. Additional zones were added in the year 2000 as described immediately above. The original unit was designed with reserve capacity just for this kind of expansion. The design of the HVAC portion of the expansion project for the Environmental Health Services Offices in 2001 at the local Anheuser-Busch Brewery required knowledge of and the combination of results of several previous projects. This project required the combination of existing original construction drawings from the 60's with three previous projects designed by myself. This was described above. For this project, another previous design of mine, done on paper, had to be scanned to add to the complete model required. The resulting model resulted in a single drawing file which provided the finished drawings numbered 1 through 6. This model and the six drawings produced from this one model are shown on the drawing numbered 8, just for illustration purposes. It had no part in the actual project. The complete model (in model space) with 6 drawings (in paper space) totaled 1.5 megabytes which is relatively quite small, considering that it really includes 6 drawings. The 7'th drawing shows the block diagram of the control system for the multizone AHU which serves these areas with the previous and latest modifications. As usual for my designs, it includes the calibration and equipment selection data as well. This work was done in conjunction with a local architect and had to remain within the limits of the amount budgeted for the mechanical work. Again this meant that no time was available for extensive field measurements to make up for the lack of as built drawings from previous projects. This project involved the removal of a zone from another unit and its transfer to this multi-zone AHU as zone number 10. It also involved the removal of another zone from that same unit and its transfer to this multi-zone AHU as zone number 1. In addition, zone 10 had to be built out appropriately in the new construction areas. The duct work where these zones were removed also had to be modified to accommodate the removal. For the sake of economy, staying within the limits of the amount provided for the mechanical design, the models were not made 3 dimensional which would have been helpful. At least this time, the contractor was familiar with the work and the plant.

Replacement of an existing air handler with a larger air handler with improved steam heat/reheat for humidity control.

Air Handler with Duct Transitions to Connect to Existing Ductwork.

Steam and Condensate Piping Schematic and Pneumatic Controls Schematic.

Note: Large .pdf files.

 A disintegrating air handler of a physically much smaller and different configuration required replacement. The existing air handler had much more expensive and complicated controls but did not provide humidity control. Because the contractor that was to do the work had concerns about fitting the system into the existing space, the installation was shown with multiple and isometric views with details of the air handler configuration and modifications required and the duct transitions and special fittings. Because the steam heat/reheat coil was to be installed following the chilled water coil and operate at the same time for reheat, special steam and condensate controls were designed for full modulating coil capacity control and condensate return control. This requires special steam distributing type coils commonly referred to as non freeze coils and special condensate arrangements because of the vacuum that will frequently appear in the coil. This special arrangement is shown in a schematic piping arrangement. If you note on the drawing, the steam coil was specified as red brass because while the design steam pressure is low, it comes from higher pressure lines through a pressure reducing station. Due to a history of maintenance failures of reducing stations and condensate traps, coils have been known to be damaged by over pressure and condensate hammer which the red brass has eliminated. Simplified pneumatic controls provide advanced features yet simplicity of design, installation and maintenance. A schematic control arrangement is also shown.

High Velocity Exhaust Ducts for Laboratory Hoods.

Exhaust Duct Drawings - 3 D

Note: Large .pdf files.

 This project is more interesting because the main requirement, besides working properly, was that the duct work fit into the existing space, which was already full, including the existing slab penetrations. There were 3 hoods replacing one previous hood with expanded capacity so the duct work design became critical for pressure drop. The wide variability of flow had to be handled from one hood at minimal flow to all 3 at maximum flow.

HVAC Plans for a Paddle Wheel "Theater" Boat

 

Hold Deck Plan

Main Deck Plan

Second Deck Plan

Second Deck Ceiling and Third Deck Plan

 

Note: Large .pdf files.
This project was my second marine HVAC project working for a Naval Architect and was a legacy from my predecessor. Single line duct drawing and piping drawings had been completed and equipment had been selected, purchased and delivered. My review of the design showed that the equipment selected and flows selected did not match the equipment to the loads calculated by my predecessor and the duct work, in one line form, did not fit the spaces in which it was to be installed. I adjusted the air and water flows to match the equipment already purchased to the loads and redesigned all of the duct work to fit the available space to install it. The piping and pumps were redesigned as well but are not shown in this drawing set. The duct design was especially a problem as the noise criteria specified by the Owner's Architect was NC-21, below the normal performance range of tabulations by manufacturer's. See this "Interesting Problem" for further description of this aspect of the design (and use the browser's "back" button to return to this location). Included by permission of DeJong & Lebet, Inc., Naval Architects.

Control Diagrams for Vessel Using Johnson Controls Modular Electronic Controls

 

Drawing 1

Drawing 2

Drawing 3

Drawing 4

 

Note: Large .pdf files.
As this vessel was being refitted before leasing, it became clear that the contractor performing the HVAC work was not going to be able to perform the work of integrating the new control systems together, including the installation of new Enthalpy Recovery Wheels. In addition, the Enthalpy Recovery Wheels were supplied with no operating controls at all. This was a legacy design for which information on these controls was not available. I traveled to the refitting site and surveyed the situation and determined a possible course of action to get the equipment in operation within the required time frame. I designed a variable speed control system for the Enthalpy Recovery Wheels and additional controls required to integrate the various controllers supplied with already delivered electrical heaters and reheaters. See an illustration of the use of modular electronic controls for more information on this approach to control design (return here with your browser's "back" button). These drawings are the result of this effort. This gave me the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful Fall weather on the Great Lakes, dressed in my Florida Fall wardrobe, while supervising the final installation, trouble shooting and start up of the equipment. I also got to know scenic Gary, Indiana of former steel mill fame. Included by permission of DeJong & Lebet, Inc., Naval Architects.
This project involves upgrading and corrections to a chilled water AHU set up for VAV with pneumatic controls. It was part of a large project designed by a national scope architectural and engineering company. It had an inadequately sized cooling coil with nearly no dehumidification capacity at the normal conditions at which it is operated. Deviations from the design were made in the general construction resulting in improper control of the outside air quantity. A steam control valve had been improperly selected for too low a steam pressure, resulting in valve failures. Steam was supplied from higher pressure plant steam through pressure reduction sets which produced frequent over pressure incidents and also produced superheated steam and higher temperatures than the valvue was designed for at saturated conditions. The AHU was supplied with a preheat and a reheat coil configuration, which did not match the controls. The exhaust air fan was converted to a return air fan in my redesign. An error had been made in the design of the fire stat interlock wiring with things wired in the wrong order to produce a safe shut down. This is also a drawing of the type which I have commented on elsewhere (use your browser's "back" button to return), drawn freehand without creating CAD blocks to save drawing time. I had the revisions to the drawing in red, but my PDF creator did not want to let me show the red for some reason. I actually have a control left in the drawing which does nothing if you look closely enough. I just never removed it. It can't possibly be a mistake as I never make them ;-). As best I remember, I did think that it might be needed, but wasn't. I had the contractor leave all the old controls in place as this was a relatively complicated system, we were making a lot of changes and there was a potential for having to change the plans if something didn't work out exactly as I thought it would. All of the changes planned still haven't been made as they have not implemented all of the load increasing changes yet. They do have a functional system which can control temperature and humidity now which could not previously be done.

Correcting Control Diagrams as Part of a Project to Correct the Performance of a Chilled Water AHU

 

Un-Revised Pneumatic Control Drawing

Revised Pneumatic Control Drawing

 

Note: Large .pdf files.

 

Addition of Air Cooled Chillers to an Existing System

 

Refrigerant Lines for Air Cooled Condensers

 

Note: Large .pdf files.
This drawing shows the equipment and refrigeration lines in isometric view that was part of an expansion project for a vessel. The hatched areas used to simulate penetration through bulkheads and decks shown as translucent worked well on paper but is not visible on this .pdf drawing unless displayed at full size on your screen. On initial load, they will display at much reduced size and the hatching will not display. There was a plan view which showed the actual run of the lines but this isometric with details and notes is the most interesting drawing. Because of climatic conditions and unloaded compressor capacities, the line sizing was not simple. The mechanical contractor wanted to argue that the design should have been more complex, but after I made corrections to some of the conditions they were using and pointed out errors, they were making, they arrived at the same sizes as I did and I never heard that there was any problem. They designed the control system and did have to go back and add a chiller lock out switch to prevent operation below 50F ambient. The condensers did not have low ambient controls to operate below that point and were not needed as the AHU's took in 100% outside air. Included by permission of DeJong & Lebet, Inc., Naval Architects.

Built in place Water Cooled Marine Chiller with Complete Refrigeration System and Control System Design

 

Refrig. Piping Schematic w/Bill of Mats.

Chiller Elec. Control Panel Schematic w/BOM

 

Note: Large .pdf files.
This project consisted of the conversion of a vessel designed as a "Discotheque" sailing in European waters to a miniature cruise vessel for use in the "Ecotourism" business in the tropics off Central America. The only portion of the drawing set shown here are the two drawings for converting the existing direct expansion system to a larger capacity chilled water system. The owner's original intention was to convert the existing compressors and basic system using larger motors. My investigations showed that the existing compressors could not provide the capacity required. These two drawings show the complete new system to be created by building it in place. Despite the greater initial expense, this system could better fit the space and the owner felt that this built up system could be built and maintained better in the areas of Latin America from which the vessel would be operated. Included by permission of DeJong & Lebet, Inc., Naval Architects.