Hpac 4569 Amca Tx Tour
Hpac 4569 Amca Tx Tour
Hpac 4569 Amca Tx Tour
Hpac 4569 Amca Tx Tour
Hpac 4569 Amca Tx Tour

AMCA's 2018 Resolution: Education first!

Jan. 17, 2018
Training long has been a part of the Air Movement and Control Association's global mission. But in 2018, it takes on even greater significance.

By MICHAEL IVANOVICH & SCOTT ARNOLD, Air Movement and Control Association International Inc., Arlington Heights IL

Here we are again—the start of another year. True to tradition, many of us are marking the occasion by setting and vowing to achieve some personal goal. AMCA International is no different. In 2018, it is resolving to step up its efforts to educate and train air-systems professionals.

  • Pictured at top: In March, ASET attendees will have the opportunity to tour the 2.2-million-sq-ft Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas (TMMTX) plant.

Education and training long has been a part of AMCA’s mission, but in 2018 it is taking on greater significance. The air-systems industry is undergoing tremendous change, especially in the areas of codes, standards, and regulations governing energy efficiency, fire/life safety, and hurricane resistance. Moreover, technologies in these areas are evolving, as are methods engineers use for equipment sizing, selection, and specification. As an international standards body, product-certification provider, and publisher of handbooks, guidelines, and white papers, AMCA has a leadership role on all of these fronts. It has tremendous expertise and resources for education and training, but has only recently begun to mobilize them for public consumption—that is, outside its member companies. In collaboration with those companies, AMCA has taken bold steps to formalize its educational services.

  In August 2017, AMCA greatly expanded its ability to provide education and training with the addition of a manager of industry content, an individual devoted to leading the development and publication of educational material. Look for new and updated white papers, along with a refreshed website, timely and practical technical articles, webinars, and the like. The manager of industry content also will serve as editorial director of AMCA inmotion magazine and sister products that are under development.

For the first time, in 2018, AMCA will offer specialized in-depth technical education for engineers, architects, contractors, and commissioning providers in the form of the annual Air System Engineering and Technology (ASET) Conference. The U.S. edition of ASET, ASET-US, will be held March 6 and 7 at the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk Hotel in San Antonio, TX. It is organized into two learning tracks: Air Systems Design and Air Products & Technologies. The sessions, to be presented by veteran professional engineers and experienced technical trainers, are:

  • Optimizing an Existing Air System for Performance and Energy Efficiency;
  • Fan Sizing and Selection: Basics and Fine Points;
  • Air Distribution Design for Commercial Ventilation Systems;
  • Design Tips for Fire and Smoke Dampers;
  • Ensuring Fan Compliance with 90.1;
  • Rain and Hurricane Resistant Louvers;
  • VAV System Design;
  • Air System Motors, Drives—Sizing and Selection;
  • Tips and Tricks for Troubleshooting Fans;
  • Understanding and Reducing Air System Noise;
  • Enforceable Specifications for AMCA-Certified Products;
  • Minimizing Fan-System Effect

Keynote speaker David Sellers, PE, 2017 recipient of the Building Commissioning Association’s Benner Award, will kick off the conference with a presentation titled “What Commissioning Has Taught Us About Mentoring and Design.”

Certificates for professional-development hours (PDHs) will be issued for each one-hour ASET-US session attended.

For more information about ASET-US 2018, go to https://aset-us.com. 

ASET-Europe (http://bit.ly/ASET-Europe) will launch Feb. 20, 2018, in Lyon, France. ASET-Asia and ASET-ME (Middle East) are being planned for 2019.

Also in the works are online PDH courses. The first, designed for engineers and code officials, is on fan energy index (FEI), a new metric for energy efficiency that will be introduced this month in AMCA Standard 208, Calculation of the Fan Energy Index (see “Meet the new Fan Energy Index,” HPAC Engineering, December 2017). FEI will be used in a forthcoming California regulation for commercial and industrial fans and in a future edition of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.1, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. FEI gradually will replace fan energy grade (FEG) in codes and standards.

If your resolution for 2018 is to advance your career by increasing your knowledge and skills in the area of air systems, AMCA is ready to serve as a resource. 

_______________________________________________________

Scott Arnold is manager of industry content and Michael Ivanovich is senior director of industry relations for Air Movement and Control Association (AMCA) International Inc., a not-for-profit association of manufacturers of fans, louvers, dampers, air curtains, airflow-measurement devices, ducts, acoustic attenuators, and other air-system components. Prior to joining AMCA in 2017, Arnold was executive editor of HPAC Engineering. Ivanovich is a former editor-in-chief of HPAC Engineering. 

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