BES, the ‘specialist in design and construction of technically complex environments for pharmaceutical, healthcare and advanced scientific sectors’, has completed phase one of new cleanroom and manufacturing facilities for Terumo Aortic (Vascutek) in Glasgow.
The project combined production and assembly in one new single plant, and is part of a £50 million investment at the Glasgow headquarters and manufacturing site of the UK subsidiary of Tokyo’s Terumo Corporation. Terumo appointed BES as lead designer and principal contractor on the design and development of two new manufacturing grade cleanrooms and a sterilisation suite incorporating new production equipment as part of an extensive automisation programme in response to an expanding global surgical grafts market.
BES worked collaboratively with the Terumo Aortic teams. BES Senior Project manager, Colin Clayton, said: “The 2,400 m2 manufacturing facility has combined cGMP cleanrooms, plant rooms, and supporting ancillary accommodation, over two floors, utilising BES’s full architectural, M&E, and process services, to accommodate Terumo’s bespoke process equipment.”
BES says the development ‘has been about building for the future, not only in terms of capacity and capabilities, but also ensuring that new technologies were incorporated to continue work towards Terumo’s Net Zero targets’. It said: “This latest development is the first on site that is purely electric – powered on 100% recyclable electricity. The Glasgow site already boasts an impressive 100% recycling strategy and policy, with zero waste to landfill. The new cleanroom enables low temperature hot water and chilled water to be generated by air source heat pumps, another first on site, while recleaned or recycled water is utilised throughout. Air quality is always a high priority, with high specification filtration controls to abate any potential emissions.”
BES incorporated Norwood demountable partitioning systems for walls, ceilings, vision panels, and doors, with the added environmental advantage that they are made from steel, fully adaptable, and able to be repurposed. The M&E specialist said: “The partitioning is compliant and stylish, with double stack dados that also effectively integrate power, data, and utility services, while offering easy maintenance access, and with no edges there’s no room for dust to build.” All units were prefabricated in-house, and designed for manufacturing and assembly technology.
Terumo Aortic’s General manager, Glasgow, Robert Welsh, praised the working partnership with BES: “It’s been a long process to get to this stage, not least working through the pandemic and at a time of rising costs. Prices for fuel, aluminium, and many integral materials went through the roof, resulting in several re-iterations of the design to control costs. However, it’s been a strong relationship, with BES’s dedicated engineering team working well together to develop innovative solutions.
“We’ve also been working with BES on the design of the second-floor cleanroom simultaneously, and we are well advanced with plans for this now. The upper floor
cleanroom has used more of BES’s value engineering skills, assisting us n revising and designing several automation processes, whereas for the first cleanroom it was our bespoke equipment designed for our unique processes.
“BES won the contract via a tender process, so it has been a new relationship, which was tested during the pandemic, and with much more collaboration than first anticipated.”
When fully operational, Terumo Aortic UK will employ around 100 staff in the new facility, and with year-on-year sales growth in double digits, the Glasgow site will contribute significantly to additional manufacturing capacity – alongside its American manufacturing site – to meet increasing worldwide demand.
