AJ Rose Manufacturing is a 100-year-old manufacturing company that provides precision metal and tooling to make parts for the automotive industry as well as other industrial and HVAC customers. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the facility experienced a fire in March 2023, which caused propane and nitrogen tanks to explode. While thankfully none of AJ Rose Manufacturing's employees were injured in the fire, the explosion damaged a cooling tower.
Chris Sbrocco and his company, Willoughby, Ohio-based Pro Service Plumbing, were brought in to make emergency repairs and get AJ Rose back to pre-loss conditions as quickly as possible. For the 110,000-square-foot facility, a new cooling tower needed to be installed in order to provide chilled water to the heat exchangers on machine presses to cool the hydraulic fluid. There are 16 machines requiring a 3" supply throughout the entire factory. There are drops throughout — each one has a strainer and balancing valve. Pro Service Plumbing used 1-1/2" Viega ProPress Manual Balancing Valves for the cooling supply and drops. They piped in chilled water with 3" ProPress valves, flanges and 4" flanges for backflow and XL ProPress fittings in the pump station to introduce glycol so it doesn’t freeze.
Sbrocco estimates that he used close to 400 fittings on this project.
Following the fire, Pro Service Plumbing was tasked with installing a temporary tower, which they had up and running within two weeks. However, their scope expanded significantly once they discovered leaks throughout the existing cooling system. Sbrocco knew that Viega fittings and valves were the best call to complete such a large job with a quickly approaching deadline. Using Viega, Sbrocco was able to make repairs without shutting down entire systems, thereby saving hours of time.
AJ Rose Manufacturing has deadlines it has to meet to deliver products to its automotive customers. The company can be faced with some steep fines if it misses a deliverable. Thanks to Pro Service Plumbing, the manufacturer was able to restart production only a few weeks after the fire.
