Alenia Aeronautica S.p.A. factory
Grottaglie (Taranto)

Commissioned by: STUDIO AMATI S.r.l.

Architectural Design: Arch. Alfredo Amati

Detail Design for contract and site supervision of M&E plants for the enlargement of the working factory in Grottaglie (Taranto).

Alenia Aeronautica S.p.A., company of the Finmeccanica group, factory enlargement in Grottaglie (Taranto), for the production of the carbon-fibre sections for the fuselage of the new Boing B787 aircraft with an innovative process for the first time in Europe.

The new buildings develop a 69.000 sq.m covered area with the following destination of use:

•   a shed which will host the aeronautical production unit;

•   two factory buildings at the west end of the shed, respectively one for cooled storage and one for dressing room, offices and production related premises

•   the executive/management building on the north front of the shed;

The shed is structured in three longitudinal aisles, with a net height of 55m, crossed by modular spans, with a net height of 38,40m, for a total covered area of 66.680sq.m split in four main production units:

•   "Clean room"

•   "Manufacture"

•   "Assembly"

•   "Painting and shipping"

Each production unit is equipped with 10tons bridge cranes with the hook height at 13,7m.

A three storey building hosts the executive offices and a meeting room.

Beside the above structures there are the E, F and G Units dedicated to the M&E sub-systems.

In particular the E Unit will host the following technological stations:

•   Heating station: installed power 32,5MW split on 3x10MW boilers and 1x2,5MW boiler for low consumption seasons. The generating system is composed by a diathermic-mineral-oil primary circuit at 240°C feeding the autoclave and two diathermic-oil/water heat exchanger producing 80°C water to the sanitary-hot-water conditioning and production units in the sub-stations.

•   Chilling station: installed power 25MW split on 5 centrifugal-water-condensing chillers, two of which with inverter. This device allows, in optimal environmental conditions, to drop the condensation-water temperature at minimum levels improving the system chilling efficiency, that can reach a COP12 rate with condensation-water at 15°C.

•   Compressed air station: 3 rotary screw compressors (+1 spare), cooled by dedicated evaporative towers, able to deliver 200Ncu.m/min at 9bar in continuous service.

•   Vacuum station: 3 electro-compressors able to suck up to 3000 l/h at 700 mbar.

•   Water station

The industrial and conditioning services distribution grid departs underground from the production stations to the shed and utility areas users. The hot and refrigerated water is delivered by pre-isolated underground pipes with two independent paths feeding a ring on the shed roof from two far and different points. The highly reliable systems' logic has been applied so to allow maintenance without interruption of the service.

The appliances inside the shed are served by a pipe network coming down alongside the pillars to the single user. All the on-off valves are grouped in 4 points of the shed and are reachable by the personnel by protected ladders.

A controlled atmosphere is required for some process in the production of the fuselage. The opening of the bag containing the carbon fibre and its drawing on the fuselage-shaped spindle is made at a constant temperature of 22°C with a presence of particles in atmosphere classified as "grey". An over-pressure of 40Pa is kept by a variable-displacement external air inlet, aka "make up", up to 447.200cu.m/h, with dedicated pressure probes to monitor the over-pressure on the displacement treated by the "make up" units. The total amount of treated air is about 2.500.000cu.m/h, of which 33% is external air and the remaining is re-circulated.10 air-treatment units are foreseen, all roof mounted on the factory building.

The regulation system is client-server based. All the information from the plants' supervision systems gather on the server, to which several terminals are connected from different places of the production complex and a password protected environment allow operators to different parts of the system with different rights.

Along the North boundary, toward the Provincial road, other premises are foreseen:

•   delivery and de-compression of methane gas to the boilers (F unit)

•   power delivery (G unit)

•   waste dump and storage (H unit)

A HV (150kV) delivery feeds the complex. The HV/MV power sub-station consists of 2x16/20MVA 150/20kV outdoor oil-insulated transformers with ONAN/ONAF cooling system.

The following MV distribution sub-stations are closed-ring configured:

•   Sub-station 1: Shed and new buildings

  • n°1 MV transformation switchboard;

  • n°4+1 spare 2000kVA transformers;

  • n°2+1 spare LV general switchboards;

•  Cabina 2: Capannone e nuovi edifici

  • n°1 MV transformation switchboard;

  • n°4+1 spare 2000kVA transformers;

  • n°2+1 spare LV general switchboards;

•  Cabina E: Edificio centrali tecnologiche

  • n°1 MV transformation switchboard;

  • n°8+1 spare 2000kVA transformers;

  • n°2+1 spare LV general switchboards;

Furthermore the existing Sub-station B is to be joined to the new MV ring. The continuity power is assured by 5 UPS for a total of 180kVA.

WORKS AMOUNT:  24.000.000 €  (impianti tecnologici)

PERIOD:                 From Agust 2004 - Site Supervision in progress