The international pharmaceutical group's new £52 million facility is located at Alderley Park in Cheshire. Due for completion later this year, it is part of a five-year development programme that began in 2001.
The facility comprises two principal research and development buildings, Blocks 50 and 52, linked by a node area, designed to form one end of a central spine. This will provide a range of employee amenities over three floors and also has basement and penthouse plantrooms. It will incorporate the main pedestrian entrance from the adjacent multi-storey car park as well as an underground link between other buildings across the site.
Designed to set new global scientific standards in advanced biosciences, speeding up the identification of new drugs to combat a range of diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis, the facility is the first of a new generation of buildings incorporating the latest specialised equipment.
Block 50 is designed to provide new, state-of-the-art, fermentation bioscience and structural chemistry facilities. These will incorporate high technology equipment capable of supplying protein-based cell cultures for the company's entire research and development requirements worldwide.
The adjacent Block 52, scheduled to be fully operational by September this year, will combine storage, retrieval and processing facilities for solid compounds and liquids.
Extensive new information technology networks, using the latest structured cabling infrastructure contained and protected by Cablofil's wire tray system, will assist scientists in selecting and assessing samples for screening. Laboratory equipment will also include mains-powered robots and other advanced, automated materials-handling systems, which will allow selection of compounds for screening at speeds of up to ten times the current rate.
Designed by Amec Construction, and constructed by an alliance of contractors, the building has a striking Swedish-style architectural design. The glass and stone-clad buildings have three science floors, a basement that houses plant and service corridors, and a roof-level plantroom.
The new buildings are among the most highly serviced of any on the entire Alderley Park site in terms of air handling systems, temperature and humidity controls and cabled services. They have been designed to provide optimum operating conditions for sensitive, high technology, scientific equipment, as well as high standards of working environment for employees.
The cable challenge
The scale and complexity of the laboratory systems and process equipment presented the design teams with a significant challenge, not least in routing complex, high density wiring and cabling.
Cable management systems supplied by Cablofil (UK) enabled the entire installation to be carried out rapidly, efficiently and cost-effectively by the electrical contractors, who were frequently working in restricted space and to strict timescales.
The Cablofil system has been installed in plantrooms, ceiling and service voids throughout the facility by electrical contractor Cross Electrical.
Around 2000 metres of the Cablofil system, in a range of standard sizes, is being used to contain and protect high-capacity, high-volume, Category 5e and optical fibre datacomms cabling systems throughout the new research and development facility. The wire tray also provides secure containment for the low voltage ac and dc control and instrumentation wiring distribution systems for special-purpose laboratory equipment.
Cablofil is constructed from an open mesh of steel wires in a range of diameters up to 6 mm. With a high strength-to-weight ratio compared to equivalent conventional cable containment and protection products, the wire tray provides a high level of protection and security for critical structured cabling networks operating at high bit-rate data applications.
Cross Electrical's senior site engineer Paul Radley comments: "Cablofil was the choice for this project. I've used the product before and I feel totally confident about using it again. It's an excellent system, very quick and easy to install, cutting both our time and our costs." He added: "I've found Cablofil to be much better to use than traditional galvanised trays. We don't have to wait for parts and accessories as we can simply make any changes as they arise and alterations, such as 90 degree bends, can be made quickly and easily by our site team, saving time and costs."
The Macclesfield connection
In addition to AstraZeneca's new laboratory complex at Alderley Park, the main cable and wiring management systems at the Group's production facility at Macclesfield, including new extensions to the plant, are based on the Cablofil steel wire tray.
The Group's second largest manufacturing and supply site, it operates closely in conjunction with the research and development facility at Alderley Park to achieve successful technology transfers and undertake first manufacture of new products.
The Macclesfield facility is the launch site for new pharmaceuticals, the lead quality assurance centre for a range of products for global markets, the sole global supplier for a leading cancer drug, and it supplies all of AstraZeneca's therapy products to around 130 markets worldwide.
As well as providing containment and protection for all electrical services, control wiring systems and datacomms cabling networks in existing locations throughout the Macclesfield site, around 1000 metres of Cablofil has also been supplied for a major new extension currently under way.
Housed in a three-storey building, the new facility – known as Sterile Production Plant 3B – is nearing completion. It has been designed and built as a special-purpose production area for one of AstraZeneca's latest cancer therapy products.
With new production areas designed to operate under the most stringent and scrupulously-maintained sterile conditions, all critical mains power, low voltage control wiring and cabling feeding the highly automated materials processing, handling and packaging plant and machinery is contained and protected by Cablofil steel wire tray.
In addition, the wire mesh cable tray installed by Cross Electrical is used for structured datacomms cabling, providing optimum protection and capacity for future expansion of IT-based networks throughout the new building.
Source
Electrical and Mechanical Contractor
No comments yet