Majoring in Beer? ICC is All In!
The college experience usually involves some amount of beer, cider, and other spirits. But it’s not generally part of the curriculum. In 2018, South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) introduced a new Craft Brewing and Distilling Program to prepare students to open their own craft brewing operations or support existing businesses with their knowledge and talent. In […]
Making the impossible possible
There’s a reason manufacturers call ICC Group when they have what seems like an impossible task or timeline: ICC is really serious when they say “we make the impossible possible.” A major agricultural processor in central Washington was a case in point, asking ICC’s Parts and Field Services certified contractors to complete phase 1 of […]
HIGH QUALITY PHARMA DESIGN AT A LOWER COST: IT *IS* POSSIBLE
“I have yet to find a situation where a pharmaceutical client said they’d sacrifice a little quality if I can make it cheaper.” ICC Inc. Senior Process Engineer Eric Raibley is a problem solver among problem solvers, but he is the first to tell you that quality is non-negotiable in the design engineering of a pharmaceutical […]
Precision that Saves Time and Money: Smart 3D Design
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then 3D laser scanning and modeling are worth at least a thousand measurements. That’s because 3D laser scanning creates a precise, real-space image by combining digitally mapped “point clouds” and photos of an area like a production line, tank house, or wastewater treatment system. And then with 3D building […]
Custom Crush: Swiss Army Knife of Tank Design
An artful labor of love, the very idea of leaving your wine’s fermentation and aging to someone else seems like the ultimate trust-fall exercise. Fortunately for the ultra-premium winemakers who have chosen to work with Wheeler Farms Winery in the Napa Valley, Wheeler’s high-tech custom crush facility includes the highly customized and artful design work of ICC-NW. To […]
Is Your Production Manufacturing Facility Fit?
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.” Who first said that is up for dispute (Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Henry Ford, and renowned management consultant William Edwards Deming are all contenders), but the point remains the same: if you want different results, something has to change. Ah…but what, exactly, […]
Better Your Brews with Brew-Specific Design
When the difference between a gold-medal IPA and something that sits on the shelf is one degree, one measly little degree of change in temperature, you can see why brew-specific design engineering is mission critical. Portland, OR craft brewer Breakside Brewery understands just how important the design is to the success of its brews – it was named Brewery […]
Decant Winery Upgrade Project Now to Get Ahead of Competitors
Most wineries in the United States, even the oldest labels, don’t have the luxury of leaving the chemical alchemy of producing wine to the harmony created by hundreds, even thousands of years of legacy production. So Fall, even while harvest is still under way, is a perfect time to start thinking about the technology upgrades […]
4 Steps to Design Engineering that Honors Legacies
When a beloved brand like MillerCoors, Pepsi, or Templeton Rye comes to you for design engineering, you don’t want to be that guy – the one that takes down an iconic brand by getting it wrong (like the well-meaning but untrained woman who ruined the fresco of Jesus trying to restore it). That’s why ICC recommends a […]
Engineering Away Winery Accidents
“Streets flowing with wine” sounds like heaven, but not if that wine is gushing from a tank that failed in your winery. The unlikely-sounding scenario actually happened in September 2018 in Conegliano, Italy, when a fermentation tank spewed 8,000 gallons of prosecco. Other winery accidents have resulted in injuries and even deaths. When it comes to winery […]