Ocean Spray Cranberries

A National Leader in Fruit Processing Keeps on Growing

Ocean Spray is an agricultural cooperative owned by more than 800 cranberry growers in the U.S. and Canada. When the cooperative selected its Middleboro, Massachusetts facility to produce sweetened dried cranberries (SDCs), they needed to upgrade building infrastructure to support the new production process, which used 25°F chilled water. Ocean Spray looked for a single source provider to act as an owner/consultant to work with the design team, supply and install the HVAC and process chiller equipment. The right provider would be directly responsible to Ocean Spray—reducing the complexities and cost overruns of conventional construction processes.

Support and Service are the Right Ingredients

Ocean Spray met its objectives working with Trane’s Providence, Rhode Island office. “Trane provided outstanding service throughout the Middleboro SDC Project,” says Bob Lowder, Ocean Spray’s Manager of Capital Engineering & MRO Programs. “The excellent support and service continued right through equipment commissioning and validation.” Trane is now maintaining the equipment as part of an annual maintenance agreement.

The Middleboro project included a TRANE EarthWise™ CenTraVac™ high-efficiency centrifugal chiller, a 75-ton IntelliPak™ rooftop system for the product packaging area, and three T-Series™ rooftop air handlers to supply 125,000 CFM of conditioned air to the processing area. A TRANE Tracer Summit™ system provides critical information to the process PLC controllers and Ocean Spray’s internal Ethernet system through a Tracer Summit Web server.

Results Merit Duplication in Other Plants

“Trane’s performance was exceptional in all facets of this important Ocean Spray project,” continues Lowder, “from equipment selection, project management and construction management to controls integration and commissioning.” Ocean Spray’s HVAC and process cooling equipment is a critical part of the manufacturing process. The equipment and systems Trane installed were of the highest quality and the work was done on time and under budget. Ocean Spray is now reapplying the Middleboro design at other new SDC production facilities, with the continued support of Trane.”

In addition to the Middleboro project, Trane installed a CenTraVac Chiller to replace two older chillers that had failed in the Ocean Spray corporate headquarters in Lakeville, Massachusetts. During the replacement process, a Trane Rental Services chiller was provided to satisfy critical HVAC loads.