Sintavia

The building is a combined manufacturing space and corporate office constructed using the tilt-up method for a leading additive manufacturer in the aerospace and defense industry. Currently, the advanced manufacturing facility boasts $ 25M worth of equipment, including medium and large-format metal 3D printing systems, EDM’s post processing machines, wet-booths, and several furnaces. Much of this equipment is being dispersed across several different manufacturing rooms per the alloy being processed, while a large scale powder management system, an apparently uninterruptable power supply, an inert gas farm, and a production acceptance quality control room have all been implemented to improve Sintavia’s set-up. The facility is comprised of three distinct portions. The outdoor mechanical yard at the northeast corner is enclosed with free-standing tilt-up panels screening the equipment from perimeter views. The northern portion of the facility houses a combination of high-bay and two-story manufacturing space to support the company’s functional needs. The southern portion has additional manufacturing space on the ground floor, but primarily functions as the customer reception on the ground floor coupled with corporate offices on the second floor. A demising wall constructed with tilt-up panels separates the northern and southern portion of the facility, providing a durable and secure division of the manufacturing operations from the offices. The perimeter walls of the building are solid (that is, non-insulated) tilt-up concrete wall panels. In addition to the interior demising wall mentioned above, the three stair shafts are constructed using tilt-up concrete panels. Varying thickness of panels and a horizontal rustication pattern mimicking a ribbed finish were used to create architectural appeal on the southern end. A unique feature to this building that posed a special challenge to the construction is the large area of glazing at the southwestern corner of the building. L-shaped tilt-up panels where placed back-to-back to create a pilaster support for 40-foot wide and 16-foot wide spandrels on either side. Due to the wall configuration, special panel-to-panel connections had to be installed after the panels were erected. Additionally, structural steel beams supplemented the support of the spandrel panels which required special attention to construction sequencing efforts.