CEAC-2021-02-February

(Continued from pg. 31)
News
take the project off track,” says Steele.
Because circumstances can vary and change, Steele says that
flexibility and collaboration should also be emphasized.
“Sometimes the manufacturer will provide the equipment
and we will integrate it into the mobile unit. At times, they
will specify and we will source it. Other times, we might design
a portion of the project or most of it,” he says.
For more complex projects, however, it is important that the
units are designed to be easily connected.
“The modular units are like LEGO blocks that can be combined
to optimize function in a minimal spatial footprint.
If you have a generator unit, a power storage unit, a pump
unit, and a filtration unit, you could link them all together
wherever needed,” says Steele.
When necessary, additional mobile units designed for support
purposes are required. For centralized control, a mobile
command center can be utilized. This eases information flow
and distribution through data, voice, and video through the
center.
For example, with the use of mobile assets AmerenUE, an
electric and natural gas utility provider to approximately
1.2 million Missouri customers, developed a creative way to
enhance its effectiveness while responding to system power
outages when major storms occur.
AmerenUE relied on Craftsmen to build two mobile command
center trailers to improve its coordination and communication
with field personnel during restoration efforts.
Both command centers are 53-foot single drop trailers with
custom modifications.
trailers with a dramatic photograph of line workers on poles
and the message “Help is on the way.” The trailers stay at an
AmerenUE operating center in west St. Louis County until the
units are dispatched. This occurs during incidents requiring
the restoration of a large number of customers, when a communications
center needs to be close to the action.
According to Steele, almost any requirement can be supplied
as a mobilized solution. Mobile office trailers and training
vehicles can also be used as temporary onsite work locations
with specific seating, technology, restroom and kitchen
facilities available. If space is at a premium, single and double
expandable trailer units can be designed with hydraulic
bump-outs so that up to 980 sq. ft. of space is available.
In the marketplace, manufacturers have long been subject
to excessive production downtime due to power failures and
other unexpected occurrences.
Rapid deployment of mobile production and processing equipment in modular
trailers or containers can be customized and outsourced from concept
to turnkey asset.
With the availability of rapidly deployable, customizable mobile
equipment trailers and containers, manufacturers today
have a ready means to ensure reliable production despite
emergencies like blackouts, as well as necessary maintenance
for upgrade, replacement or expansion, which could otherwise
lead to extended plant shutdowns.
For more information, call 1-800-373-3575 toll free; visit
www.craftsmenind.com; or write to Craftsmen Industries, Inc.
at 3101 Elm Point Industrial Drive, St. Charles, MO 63301.
Del Williams is a technical writer based in Torrance, California.
The trailers are self-sustaining dispatch offices equipped
with a communications room, custom antenna housing,
conference room, field commander’s office, six work stations,
satellite dish and 30- kilowatt generator.
The mobile assets provider also printed and “skinned” the
Building Controls &
Building Automation Systems
24-Hour Service Hotline
815.724.0525
www.ibs-chicago.com
info@ibs-chicago.com
32
| Chief Engineer