SMACNA's Technical University Sells Out

SMACNA Greater Chicago hosted SMACNA’s Technical University March 21-22. The program drew nearly 50 members to the conference center in Oak Brook to learn about duct construction.

“It’s a day-and-a-half program, and is geared primarily for mainstream HVAC duct fabricators because we focus on the technical and code-related standards surrounding duct construction,” said Mark Terzigni, SMACNA director of engineering and technical resources, who led the program with SMACNA project managers Shawn O’Hara and Delaine Deer.

Topics included duct construction standards; air duct leakage; fire, smoke and radiation damper installation guide; rectangular industrial duct construction standards; and round industrial duct construction standards.

“The first thing we cover is HVAC duct construction, and we break that into three programs: 101, 102 and 103. The 101 class covers rectangular ducts and external reinforcement. The 102 class covers rectangular ducts and internal reinforcement, and the 103 class covers round duct, oval duct and duct supports,” Mark said. “To round that day out, we do a presentation on fire damper installation and associated issues around that and duct leakage testing. It’s a pretty intense day. Then, on day two, we go into industrial standards, specifically rectangular industrial duct and round industrial duct.”

Mark explained that SMACNA holds these Technical University programs throughout the country at the request of chapters, and that no two are the same because they continually work to integrate feedback from each session into the next ones.

“People always say they learned something — even if they’ve been working in the industry for 20 to 30 years,” he said. “Our goal is to help our members as much as possible. It’s a lot of material to absorb in a short time, so we also like to remind everyone that we are always available as a resource for them. They can give us a call or reach out anytime.

“The workshop was highly informative. The presenters were fantastic and gave us their personal contact information in case we have questions in the future,” Jim Carmody, McCauley Mechanical.