Collin McKevitt

Mechanical engineer responsible for leading the design of HVAC, utilities, and process upgrades for heavy industrial plants.

Projects:
Dust Collection Slurry Overflow Removal

• Design new discharge removal system for existing process dust collector at an HBI plant in Toledo, OH.
• Engineer new slurry tanks, make-up water, and redundant pumping system to replace discharge removal by bob-cat.
• Iterative hydraulic calculations to minimize make-up water in slurry tank and redundant pumping and piping system has resulted in zero (0) days of line plugging, excess dust collector discharge accumulation, and process down-time.

Taconite Processing Facility Bypass Conveyor

• Design of new production bypass conveyor system to eliminate potential freezing issues occurring from bridged stockpiles above the conveyor tunnel feeding fines to the concentrator building in taconite processing facility in Virginia, MN.
• Size and layout new feeder and bypass conveyor systems on existing transfer tower. Relocate existing dust collection pick-up points and hoods. Engineer three (3) new transfer chutes. Re-route utilities.
• Bypass conveyors intended to improve annual throughput of fines to concentrator building by reducing down-time from bridged stockpiles.

Taconite Processing Facility Wet Clean-up Water System

• Design wet-clean up system for crusher and concentrator buildings at a taconite processing facility in Virginia, MN.
• Size tanks, distribution pumps, sump pumps, sumps, and clean-up water lines.
• System efficiently covered primary crusher, intermediate crusher, and concentrator buildings with water and hose reels for building clean-up.
  

Taconite Processing Facility Airflow Study

• Analyze crusher building airflows and process dust generation to provide solutions for reducing airborne silica in a taconite processing facility in Ishpeming, MI.
• Create CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model of existing condition with airflow data from building louvres, exhaust fans, and measured dust concentration data. Create CFD models of solution configurations to compare to existing building conditions.
• Optimize and iterate solutions to reduce overall airborne silica concentrations in the intermediate crusher building below the MSHA PEL limit of 0.05mg/m^3.
  

Taconite Processing Facility Coarse Crusher Circuit Undersize Chute

• Design and engineer new undersize chute beneath coarse crusher circuit screen deck.
• Employ DEM (discrete element modeling) to analyze flow characteristics of existing chute underneath screen deck.
• Optimized chute geometry
  Production Line Pipe Stress Analysis (August 2024 – November 2024)

Manufacturing Plant Pipe Stress Analysis

• Design pipe route for infant formula product line from rotary piston pump to the top of the powderization building
• Calculate hoop stress, axial stress, and thermal expansion along 5000 psig line at 400°F.
• Analysis revealed client pre-selected line was not code compliant. New code compliant system was optimized for reduced forces at pipe supports and relieved thermal expansion primarily through pipe deflection.
  
  Fracking Sand Processing Facility
• Design HVAC, dust collection, and separating process for brand new canadian frac sand plant.
• Engineer plant HVAC, dust collection, and heat recovery systems. Layout and size process equipment for dry plant including rotary bucket elevators, surge bins, rotary screens, transfer chutes, and belt conveyors.
• Advanced hydraulic modeling of dust collection saved client capital costs of two (2) 30,000 CFM dust collectors and fans. Plant HVAC optimized for future energy recovery and lowest possible initial investments.
  
  

Entry level mechanical engineer responsible for utility and process design in heavy industrial plants.

Projects:

Taconite Pellet Coating

• Design limestone slurry coating system for pellet plant in Silver Bay, MN.
• Engineer main slurry supply lines and pumping system from existing silo to new slurry shack and secondary distribution pumps.
• System utilized existing slurry supply and creatively selected route through warehouse and pellet plant reduced power draw in main slurry supply line pumps.

Auxiliary Drive Brake

• Engineer brake for a kiln's auxiliary drive at a taconite processing facility in Forbes, MN.
• Calculate shaft sizes, hubs, brake surface area, and keyway for auxiliary drive brake on kiln.
• Customize manual lock-out tag out system for operations safety during maintenance on auxiliary drive brake.
  
  Mobile Hoppers
• Size bulk material handling equipment to transfer sugar from self-unloading vessels to main process building at a sugar refinery in San Francisco, CA.
• Size and lay out process equipment including feed/transfer screws from mobile hopper discharge, bucket elevator feed conveyor, and bucket elevator.
• Mobile hopper and process feed upgrades along dock allowed sugar refinery opportunity to use self-unloading vessels and substantially increase processing plant input and vessel turn-around time.