Since 1954, Lunds Fisheries has provided a wide range of high quality seafood to markets around the world. The company operates one of the largest facilities on the eastern seaboard with 1,200 feet of waterfront and, no less than, 15 vessels delivering fish to its site daily. The robust processing facility is equipped with blast freezers capable of processing 450 metric tons of fish per day but the company could not optimize the space due to the size of its storage racks. By redesigning the racks, the company could expand operations to meet the supply and demand needs of restaurants east of the Mississippi.

Improving efficiency is the number one method for Lunds to increase production and better service its customers. With several external factors such as weather, regulations and real estate creating setbacks, the company decided to look internally to find ways to improve from within. This review process resulted in a collaboration with Summit Steel on the fabrication of new storage racks. The racks are unique because they are constructed specifically for Lunds’ palletizing machine in its automated packing system. This alone improves process efficiencies for the company but the larger rack size also allows it to produce more inventory while using the full capacity of the blast freezers. This one development will greatly help Lunds produce more inventory to meet the supply and demand needs in the Northeast.

Fully aware of the extreme conditions the racks would be subjected to, the team needed to find a way to protect the steel design. The harsh marine environment at the fishery quickly consumes steel. As the racks are loaded with fresh fish, they are exposed to corrosive salt water. The racks are then placed in to blast freezers with temperatures plummeting to -30 degrees F so the corrosion protection selected would need to be able to withstand quick and drastic changes in temperature. Durability was also an important consideration due to the rough handling that comes with industrial processing facilities. Considering this project was initiated to improve efficiency, the racks needed to have a long lifespan without having to take them out of commission for repairs. Ultimately, there was only one solution that could satisfactorily meet the needs of this project and that was hot-dip galvanizing.

With the design complete, fabrication began for the almost 100 storage racks. The team quickly learned that the local galvanizer’s tank size was not large enough to dip the structures so they sourced a new provider with a larger tank 5+ hours away. The first couple of loads produced excellent finish quality; however, Lunds quickly realized the logistics created undue trucking costs and labor. Luckily, there was another galvanizer with a large enough tank just an hour away. The new galvanizer stepped in and provided weekly turnarounds saving the customer thousands of dollars in additional logistics costs. The timely turnaround was vital to the customer’s installation. In the end, over 100,000 pounds of steel was protected by hot-dip galvanizing for the new storage racks resulting in increased storage and utilization of unused, functional, square footage within the floor space available.