Restricted environment. Innovative design solutions. Shiny new ISO 7 cleanroom suite.
Merit was awarded a project by GE Healthcare in Cardiff to Design and Build a 3,000m2 ISO 7 cleanroom suite, keeping 10,000 multifaceted customers supplied with clinical consumables.
- This fast track project was delivered in 39 weeks.
- Secondary structure need to support cleanroom construction and additional plant and equipment loadings.
- Scheme design completed through collaborative workshop meetings, reviews and sign-off with entire GE team.
In 2009, Merit was awarded a project to construct a 3,000m² ISO 7 cleanroom suite including associated M&E and process services.
GE Healthcare is an American multinational conglomerate that manufactures and distributes diagnostic imaging agents and radiopharmaceuticals, as well as producing medical technologies, digital infrastructures data analytic and decision support tools that help healthcare professionals diagnose, treat and monitor their patients.
The new facility, located on a 30-acre site known as the Maynard Centre is used to make 6,000 consumable products every year which detect, label, purify, amplify and analyse DNA and proteins. The Centre is also the global headquarters of GE Healthcare’s Cell Bioprocessing business; home to a world-class stem cell laboratory considered by GE Healthcare to be a Centre of Excellence.
For GE Healthcare, we delivered a fast track facility with only a few months to complete from the concept design stage to having the first 1,200m² validated and ready for beneficial occupancy and production equipment installations. The project was in an existing building which we refurbished to provide the new cleanroom and support facilities.
A variety of construction techniques were integrated to allow the application of clean operations within areas of the existing structure that would otherwise be limited. Techniques used included modular partitioning systems and dry-lining systems with clean grade finishing, all seamlessly integrated to optimise the existing spaces available. Pipework distribution was designed to provide a flexible pre-fab solution for future hook-up services without distribution to the existing structure.
The site was set to receive the production line from an existing facility that was closing in Boston, USA, so the shipping dates dictated the schedule. The programme was of critical importance to the client as the facility in the US was closing on a specific date and the facility had to be completed in time to accept those tools and start manufacturing. We were happy to accommodate the quick turnaround and successfully completed the project in just 39 weeks.