Category: Ruskin

Meeting the Demand for Extreme Conditions in Tunnels

Future projections for the North American tunneling industry are extremely positive. With populations and infrastructure expanding in major cities there is a continued need for more tunnels to move people and freight around efficiently. Air quality, air control and in the worst scenario smoke control within road and rail tunnels is a huge consideration for design engineers. Dependable equipment needs to be specified for these demanding tunnel environments.

Ruskin® tunnel ventilation dampers are relied upon worldwide for controlling and supplying air to commuters underground. These specialized dampers provide fire protection as well as purge and smoke control during emergency conditions. By using a combination of stainless steel, galvanized steel, and aluminum, Ruskin tunnel dampers can withstand the harshest conditions, including the constantly changing environments found in most tunnels.

Every damper is built with performance in mind and is designed to meet or exceed AMCA (Air Movement Control Association) specifications. Since most industrial systems cannot be shut down for normal periodic maintenance, our products are designed to support options such as exposed linkages and outboard bearing packages. These facilitate easy maintenance while the system is operational.

Each damper is thoroughly checked, tested and cycled before it is delivered to site. In addition to this and to make certain each damper performs to specifications, leakage and performance requirements are verified through Ruskin’s Research and Development department. Ruskin has developed an on-site AMCA registered air performance laboratory. Located in Kansas City, Missouri, this test facility has three high capacity wind tunnels. These test tunnels help Ruskin simulate demanding wind and air handling situations and are ideal for testing leakage and pressure drop replicating tunnel environments.

Ruskin works with a variety of materials, including galvanized steel, aluminum, stainless steel and fiberglass in order to match our customer’s exact specifications. By molding and forming these materials, we can develop dampers to fit almost any application.

Learn more about Ruskin’s tunnel ventilation solutions HERE

Growth of Data Centers in North America

As US businesses expand, strategic location and storage must be considered over storage and interaction with their data. Today data centers are allowing businesses to relocate their data rather than having resource consuming servers on site. Gone are the days where companies had their systems in an over-sized closet on site with the air-conditioning running on maximum.

In turning to these cloud solutions the business will enjoy better data bandwidth, avoid regulation and compliance issues and save huge amounts of money on maintenance, running costs and even space. Data center running costs include the power consumption and maintenance of HVAC equipment. It is important to manage and keep outside air flowing efficiently and safely in and out of a data center environment to reduce energy loads. Hyper scaled cloud server facilities have made a complex science out of increasing data center efficiencies to bring down HVAC energy usage down as much as possible.

Next to the actual server systems used, cooling and air movement systems consume the most energy within the data center. Data centers are estimated at consuming at least as much as 1.8% of the USA’s electricity usage calculated at over 70 billion kilowatt-hours. Demands on these systems have increased substantially in recent years as server densities continue to rise.

Ruskin® has been out front and anticipating the trends to data center cooling and providing equipment to help solve customer challenges. Equipment that takes into consideration more economical cooling solutions as well as protection against the elements for data centers. In an independent study, the use of Airside Economizers reduced the energy use by as much as 13%!

In order to protect vital data center generators from overheating and causing a potential shut down, compromising critical information, a Ruskin CD50, CD60, and TED50 have all been used, which open quickly and allow for proper exhaust functionality.

In critical environments, the thermal-efficient TED50CE eliminates thermal transfer and the potential for condensation. The damper also meets the IECC, features the same non-corrosive bearings and shake-proof linkage as the CD50CE and includes twin seals to ensure no thermal path. Both of these dampers are low leakage, low maintenance, AMCA licensed to Class 1A and offer quieter performance to the data center facility manager.

Ruskin louvers and FEMA rated grilles, the HZ850, the EME720, and the XP500S also will protect your data center, as well as allow air flow in and out of the facility in areas that are prone to extreme weather conditions meeting AMCA 540 and AMCA 550 requirements.