Stahlin Non-Metallic Enclosures solve Abita Brewery’s critical corrosion problem
The Situation
The Abita Brewing Co., founded in 1986, is located just north of New Orleans, LA. Abita is a rapidly growing brewery with specific manufacturing obstacles directly related to its aggressive environment.
The Challenge
All enclosures used are of NEMA 4X construction because of water, caustic, acid, and bleach that are regularly used during cleaning procedures.
Abita also, literally, has its own weather system. Because of the constant moisture in the facility, some days have actual clouds in the top half of the building. The result is that ferrous metal products corrode at a very high rate.
The plant wide specification is to use nonmetallic enclosures in all areas. This contributes to Abita being a great proving ground for a lot of products, especially electrical enclosures. Longevity and cost are key factors, however, Abita is also concerned with ease of workability.
The Solution
According to James Franklin, Abita’s Plant Engineer, “Stahlin non- metallic enclosures cost less; in addition, they are lighter weight so we save on shipping. Stahlin performs factory modifications to our specs, but we also do a great deal of field modifications to accommodate distribution, starters, drives, and other automation. The enclosures are much easier to modify using conventional tools.”
As a result of these environmental conditions, Abita has within the past 7 years used or replaced metal enclosures with more than 50 Stahlin fiberglass enclosures.
Franklin concluded, “low cost, workability, durability, and performance make non-metallic enclosures for our environment a no brainer.”
