FEATURE u Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals
ULTRA smooth move for pharma manufacturer
C
atalent enables pharma, biotech, and consumer health partners to optimise product development, launch, and full
life-cycle supply for patients around the world. Supplying over 70 billion doses from over 50 global sites, efficiency is key. IES has been partnering with several of Catalent’s sites since 2005. The latest project related to Catalent’s efforts to industrialise its new Zydis Ultra technology at the company’s facility in Swindon, England.
The 250,000sq ft facility is the global
development and manufacturing centre for Catalent’s Zydis Orally Disintegrating Tablet (ODT) platform, used to treat conditions including Parkinson’s disease, allergies and travel sickness. Equipped with high-technology manufacturing suites employing a unique freeze- drying process, the site produces around 1.2 billion doses per year, including both potent and controlled substances. The site also undertakes pharmaceutical testing for many UK and international pharmaceutical companies. A new 40,000sq ft building in Swindon was part of a £27 million investment announced in 2019 to support further growth and a new technology, Zydis Ultra. With the new building construction near completion, IES was commissioned to install, position and assemble the process equipment to the specifications of the OEM, allowing operations within the building to resume as quickly as possible. The project being split into three phases over a four-month period to ensure the day- to-day activities were synchronous with other construction activities that allowed the adjacent operational facility to remained unaffected. The items were delivered to site. Weighing over 18 tonnes and being a mix of vital equipment, machinery and ancillary items, the deliveries needed to be offloaded into temporary storage
28 April 2022 Irish Manufacturing
at the Catalent site with care, thought and to the highest health and safety standards. With over three decades of experience, moving equipment is second nature to IES, knowing preparation is key and have defined considerations for each stage. Conducting a site survey before every project is vital, even when IES has worked closely with the facility over several years, as IES has with Catalent, as every situation is unique. In this instance, the equipment being moved was high value, ultra clean and needed to remain so due to the pharmaceutical cleanroom environment, care was taken by a third-party packer to ensure each piece was prepared, double wrapped to prevent dust and other elements from reaching the equipment and secured onto timber bases suitable for its transport journey.
A SMOOTH MOVE
After each shipment was successfully offloaded, it was time for part B, moving the equipment from temporary storage to their final locations within the Catalent building. With IES’s experience, the resource was selected to provide the best cost-effective service,. Also included was the supplier of a four-tonne forklift truck (FLT) and associated lifting and ground handling equipment.
One of the main challenges during this
project was coordinating the complex access routes and working around other contractors on a construction design and management (CDM) regulated building site, whilst minimising disturbance to day-to-day operations. The size, shape, weight and centre of gravity of some of the individual machines needed very strategic planning of movement to locations within the building. Each of the machine modules needed for the process line differed in size, shape and centre of gravity, but they all included sensitive
electronics and needed to be dealt with using extreme care to ensure performance and accuracy of the machines were not affected. The grand finale involved mechanical assembly and installation of the process equipment. With guidance from various equipment suppliers, three IES Mechanical Engineers set to work to piece together the 100-piece puzzle utilising mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPS), Mobile Gantry A-frames and other specialist lifting equipment. Les King, Engineering Project Manager at Catalent, Swindon, says: “Having a long-standing partner that knows the pharmaceutical industry and our Swindon site made the entire process run smoother, ably implemented by IES team of expert engineers. “This was a huge investment, so we only want
to work with experts who can get the line up and running effectively and quickly, and who we can rely on to care for sophisticated equipment, which are vital to our operations. From the sales team, right through to the engineers, the service has been second to none, and that’s why we call on IES again and again.”
IES
www.ies.co.uk www.irish-manufacturing.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
