I know it has been a long time coming, but it is finally here: The Robert B. Gawne Technical Education and Training Center is having its Grand Opening on Thursday, May 11, 2023, in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
The training and education center was named after a founding member of the National Environmental Balancing Bureau and NEBB’s 17th President, Mr. Robert B. Gawne. Joining Stromberg Metal Works, Inc. in 1958 as an estimator, Gawne purchased Stromberg in 1987 and worked there as CEO until his death in 2018. He was a vital part of building this organization that recently celebrated its 50th Anniversary.
There is a long list of people and companies that helped and/or contributed to this project:
- The first is Kathleen Bigelow from Stromberg Metal Works, responsible for donating all the sheet metal and labor for the project. This was a huge undertaking on their part, and we are grateful for all the time and materials Stromberg provided.
- IMI Hydronic Engineering’s Amanda Salamone and Soham Neupane donated all the parts for the center’s hydronic wall.
- Evergreen Telemetry’s Pete Secor supplied Evergreen TAB test kits.
- Boland Trane and Allen King have donated air handling and condenser units.
- John Payne and W.E. Bowers supplied the piping and labor for the hydronic wall as well as the air handler hot and chilled water systems.
- Jack Duffy from Retrotec donated the building enclosure test kits.
- Mike Dolphin from Young Regulators donated remote balancing dampers used in the cleanroom.
- Mike Wieder, President of Air Filtration Management, donated the two fume hoods.
- Victor Gomez, NEBB Certified Professional from Miami with Mechanical Air Concepts Test and Balance provided the Automated Logic controls and labor that will run the building automation system.
- Ryan Kerns from Cummins-Wagner supplied the Bell and Gossett pumps for the hydronic board and the Bell and Gossett pumps and Circuit Setters for the hot and chilled water systems.
- Finally, I’d like to thank Mike Aleksich and the team at Dwyer Instruments for providing the Magnehelic gauges that will monitor our cleanroom pressures.
NEBB is very thankful to have industry partners like those mentioned above. We appreciate you and we thank you for your generous contributions to this project!
The Robert B. Gawne Technical Education and Training Center will be able to support all the NEBB disciplines with the equipment and systems that we have installed. Now, when a seminar is held at the Gaithersburg location, along with the classroom and theory instructions, there will be an opportunity to obtain hands-on practical experience.
The VAV system consists of a Trane air handling unit that is equipped with hot and chilled coils. There are five terminal units, a series fan-powered, a parallel fan-powered, a hot water coil heating box, an electric coil heating box, and a cooling-only box. The building automated system will be run through Automated Logic.
The cleanroom space is also being served by a Trane air handling unit equipped with hot and chilled water coils. It has an anteroom surrounded by four cleanrooms. There are twelve fan filter units supplying the space, two are ducted and ten are ceiling plenum. They will be controlled by a SAMlink Control System that offers global, per zone, and individual fan speed adjustment and monitoring.
There are two fume hoods at the training and education center. One is constant volume and is being served by a Loren Cook inline fan equipped with a speed controller. The other fume hood is variable air volume and it’s controlled by an Accutrol AVC Fume Hood Control System and a Loren Cook inline fan equipped with a speed controller.
The Building Enclosure Testing (BET) Lab consists of two connecting rooms with a door between them. Each room also has a door to the adjacent space. There are three 14-inch round Young Regulator electronic balancing dampers with remote control cables to regulate the amount of leakage between each room. We will also have a hydronic testing wall and the air handler hot and chilled water systems. Between both of these systems, we will have five pumps, many circuit setters, and a primary and secondary loop to be able to train students on water balancing.
The Robert B. Gawne Training and Education Center has really shaped into something that we can be very proud of. The ability to not only teach engineering principles, problem-solving, and theory during a seminar, but to also be able to go out and put our hands on the systems and see firsthand how they operate and how we can manipulate them to run more effectively and efficiently is very beneficial to our attendees.
Want to attend NEBB’s upcoming seminars and check out The Robert B. Gawne Technical Education Center for yourself? Take a look at our upcoming events.