Dust from processed grain and traditional suspended ceilings don’t mix. That’s why the owners of cereal manufacturer, Nutritional Foods, Inc., selected the HIGH-R® Insulation System following a fire at the Mecca, California company’s production facilities in 2007.
“We had a drop ceiling in there and the dust had gotten into it and we had a fire in that section of the building because of it,” says Darren Worden, one of the plant’s owners. “We replaced the roof and we wanted to make sure we put something back that wasn’t going to give us the problems we had before.”
Worden says he learned about the HIGH-R system while searching the Internet for a ceiling system that would prevent dust accumulation and be easy to keep clean.
Unlike traditional insulating methods where urethane or batt insulation is installed between trusses just below the decking of a metal building roof, HIGH-R Rigid Panel Plus Insulation Solution’s panels are mounted onto clips attached to the purlins at the base of the trusses. The cavity between the purlins and the roof decking is then filled with blown fiberglass, allowing for R-40 or greater insulation.
The panels not only offer a smooth, bright interior surface, they also assure the dew point stays in the panel and not in the insulation above, preventing insulation failure and condensation.
“You have to create a clean environment,” adds Worden, who says the HIGH-R panels allow plant workers to easily wipe down processed grain dust, reducing the potential for fire.
