Located at North American Stainless, a large steel mill in Ghent, Kentucky, this is not your average in-plant office on a mezzanine.

Around-the-clock inspectors at the mill needed a safe and comfortable environment to check steel sheeting for imperfections, with minimal disruption to the line. Panel Built designed a unique solution that maintained production flow while allowing every inch of the steel to be examined.

This custom structure has cut-outs in both the office and the mezzanine for the steel sheeting to be fed directly through the bottom of the building, passing by high speed cameras that detect any imperfections. The steel then goes up through the roof to an outside roller and returns again through the roof on the opposite side, where an operator can stop the line and personally inspect the steel in question before it continues down the line to be put on rolls and stored.

The building is fully air conditioned and maintains a constant temperature of 72 degrees even though the steel is 115 degrees when passing through. There are custom brush wipers on all four openings to help keep the air in an almost positive-pressure situation.

The project consists of a 23’ x 25’ mezzanine with custom cut-outs and a 14’ deck height. The mezzanine supports a 23’ x 25’ stucco embossed aluminum control cabin, also with custom cut-outs. The building panels are powder-coated to match the mezzanine. Two walls of the building were originally without windows. The customer decided to retrofit eight months after the initial installation, which was in December of 2008. The walls were switched out and replaced to include 6 new windows. The project, as shown here, was completed in August of 2009.