Ecolab's Centre of Excellence for Contamination Control - Shield Medicare has opened a sophisticated purpose-built manufacturing facility at Baglan Energy Park, near Swansea, South Wales.
The new plant covers almost 50,000sq ft with a 16,000sq ft production area, four times the size of the former production facility.
The site houses some of the most innovative technology in the industry, including state-of-the-art cleanrooms and laboratories. This means that not only can the company carry out large volume production and single batch supply to major pharmaceutical companies, but also it can now devote more resources to research and development.
In total the plant has five state-of-the-art Grade B and C cleanrooms with laminar air flow at the point of fill. The highly developed cleanroom design incorporates several new features to minimise contamination risk from people traffic and airflow during the production process. These include interlocking hatches, talk-through panels and the latest intercom systems.
Even the change areas and preparation rooms have a high specification and make use of different coloured flooring to identify 'clean' and 'dirty' areas. Additional risk reduction comes from an innovative design to the sprinkler system, making it easy to clean the cleanroom ceilings, and crash-through fire doors that are fully sealed.
'This is a significant development for Ecolab,' said Susan Nestegard, Ecolab's senior vice president and chief technical officer. 'As the global leader in our field, we pride ourselves on our dedication to maintaining the highest standards, and the Baglan plant reflects this commitment.'
Ecolab's Centre of Excellence for Contamination Control, Shield Medicare, is a market leader in the supply of specialist contamination control products to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare and medical device industries worldwide. It specialises in meeting the requirements of pharmaceutical and medical cleanrooms, whose needs are often very different from those of electronics cleanrooms.
The facilities are continually expanding and up-grading to meet the latest GMP recommendations and maintain the highest possible standards of manufacture, the company says.
