b'Why Use the MICA Manual? after insulation activity started. We had 40% to 50% of the modules insulated and jacketed. Some of the first modules Hi, I am George Shimada and Im a regional insulationwere already shipped to the construction site. The owners manager for a contractor in the Milwaukee, WIrepresentative brought up a concern that the aluminum geography. I want to share with you how using the MICAjacketing wasnt white in color and pointed to the bid Insulation Standards Manual plates in our submittalsspecifications stating, color(s) to be chosen by owner. saved our company from a significant loss of money, time,When we originally bid the project, this note on aluminum and disagreement with the customer/owner. jacket was noticed. Colorized aluminum in the U.S. is not an industry standard and just the jacket for straight pipe can Several years ago, we were awarded a liquified natural gasbe as much as 50% more in cost than unpainted jacket. (LNG) project with a pipe fabricator to insulate pipingColored fittings cost can be even significantly higher. There modules in the fabricators fab yard prior to being shippedcan also be minimum quantity order requirements. We to the LNG site. Upon award of the project, we wereexcluded colored jacket at bid time and were careful to state asked to create an insulation submittal package. Amongsuch in the submittals (see note #9 on Double Layer the submittal material data sheets, I included MICAContraction Joints and note #10 of Double Layer Pipe Insulation Standards Manual plates of how we wouldplates).execute our work. Among the documents were 2 plates that Ive attached to this testimony, one plate depictingBecause we stated unpainted in the plates and because the how we would insulate and jacket straight LNG pipe andengineer approved the submittals as stated, the burden of the second plate depicts how we would execute cryogeniccost in removing jacketing already installed, ordering contraction joints. colored jacket, and installing was not our responsibility. Once the owner understood this, the 3 parties (owner, The first save occurred shortly after submission of theengineer, and our company) had a meeting to determine the documents and prior to the start of insulation activities.reason for the owner wanting white color. The owner During the owners engineer submittal approval process,thought the white would reflect sunlight better and the we had conference calls to discuss insulation executioninsulation system would be better. The engineer was able to due to LNG insulation complexity. Obviously, the ownerrun heat loss (gain) calculations and determine the color was very aware of how easy insulation failures can occurwas not very important. Finally, the decision was agreed to due to the low temperature of the system. leave unpainted jacket.During the bid process, the insulation specifications wereHad our company failed in being thorough in the submittals lacking in execution details, one area being spacingand had we left MICA plates out of the process altogether, distance of contraction joints along long lengths of pipe.we would have lost significant money on the project, likely Because of this, our submittal was very specific in how fargoing out of pocket. We would have damaged our apart these joints would be installed (see #5 of the Doublereputation in the industry. We would have an upset Layer Contraction Joints stating .at 20 LF intervals.)customer, engineer, and owner. I would have had an upset The engineer felt that these joint distances should be muchboss.closer together. If memory serves correctly, they wanted them every 12 LF instead of the submitted 20 LF.Instead, we had an extremely successful project and all Obviously, this would have almost doubled the number ofparties were extremely happy with how the project joints required, with each joint taking several hours toprogressed from start to finish. I cannot urge contractors install. enough to use the MICA Insulation Standards Manual in any submittal. It only takes a few minutes to complete a During this discussion, we and the engineer were able toMICA plate to use in the submittal and I guarantee that research the insulation materials and determine the correcttime, cost, and argument will be saved during project length. Because this discussion occurred and the engineerexecution.recognized the lack of instruction in the bid documents, we were able to avert a very costly issue up front. Had weThank you,started work and then the engineer raised the issue afterGeorgelarge quantities of pipe were insulated, we would have had to remove insulation and jacketing from pipe and installed additional joints to satisfy the owner.Likely, burden of cost would have resided with us as we are considered the industry expert. In the very least, we would have been in an adversarial discussion trying to get additional funding for the required number of joints. However, because we had the discussion prior to start of work, the discussion was friendly and more of a team solving spirit in nature. We all wanted the project to succeed and all parties to be financially whole.The second save occurred after submittal approval and 10'