In a joint development, UK companies Bassaire, a clean air engineering specialist, and ISD Solutions, a composite panel construction company, have completed a state-of the art clean manufacturing facility for The Nutrition Group, a contract manufacturer within the health supplements and sports nutrition markets.
The new facility for the Nutrition Group in Blackpool was designed and value engineered by Bassaire working with ISD Solutions, to provide an ISO Class 8 manufacturing centre together with a packing area and staff services for tablet and supplement production.
With a floor area of 1,365m2, the cleanroom suite is constructed using PIR composite panels for walls and ceilings supplied and installed by ISD Solutions with some 60 specialist doors, which together provide an air-tight, atmosphere controlled production environment.
The manufacturing area is served by a dedicated ‘supply and extract’ air handling unit delivering hepa filtered air through corridor ceiling grilles. The air is extracted from the rooms at low level providing good air movement and the ventilation system ensures the manufacturing rooms remain positively pressurised to meet Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and client requirements.
'This is the first project undertaken with ISD Solutions and together we have value engineered a turnkey solution to meet the strict clean production requirements of the Nutrition Group,' said Rachel Utting, Project Manager at Bassaire.
'All mechanical and electrical services are installed above the ceilings and these have been designed to be fully accessible with walk-on access to allow maintenance work to be carried out from above, without compromising the cleanliness of production rooms below.'
Andy Hudspith for ISD Solutions added: 'Composite PIR panels incorporating a ‘clean safe’ plasticised finish are an ideal construction solution for cleanroom and pharmaceutical environments and we see excellent synergy in this sector.
'Particular attention was needed to ensure a fixing free flush finish to ensure an ultra-clean working environment.'
All lighting units and ducting apertures were formed throughout the project with careful planning of recessed electrical sockets and conduit runs formed within the panel insulation. The use of Gripple wires in place of more traditional ceiling suspension methods also helped to overcome ceiling spans and provide walk on access.