Vebro Polymers and Concrete Flooring Solutions have teamed up to help ready a manufacturer producing vital equipment needed for the production of COVID-19 vaccines relocate to a larger industrial premises located in Havant – a town positioned in the south east corner of Hampshire.
Sartorius, an international pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment supplier, has taken two new units on Velocity Park totalling more than 5,000 square metres in order to scale up production and meet the current demands placed upon the company amidst the global pandemic and international vaccine rollout programme.
Relocating from a previous site in Portsmouth, the company engineers and manufactures biopharmaceutical solutions and equipment to support the commercial scale manufacture of injectable treatments and medicines.
This includes equipment used to help control and purify key manufacturing steps for cancer treatments, blood plasma treatments and vaccines.
The crew at Concrete Flooring Solutions have installed over 2,600 m2 of Vebro Polymers’ polyurethane ESD control flooring system, vebrostatic PU ESD SL (Conductive), in production and processing areas at Sartorius’ new site in Stanbridge Road.
vebrostatic PU ESD SL is a 2.5 mm pigmented, solvent-free, self-smoothing polyurethane flooring system designed to safely ground electrostatic discharge.
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) refers to the rapid, spontaneous transfer of electrostatic charge induced by a high electrostatic field. Charge can build-up when simply walking across the floor of a processing environment.
Although harmless to humans, ESD events can damage sensitive electronic devices or components, or worse, trigger a spark that could lead to a fire or an explosion in certain conditions.
Without controls in places – including flooring materials equipped to safely dispel charge – damage can be irreversible and prove costly to manufacturers.
vebrostatic PU ESD SL is recommended for use in industries where such ESD events can become commonplace – including medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical processors, automotive producers, packaging and fulfilment organisations as well as other brands operating cleanroom and critical environments. The material meets all of the requirements set out in EN 1081, EN 61340-5-1, AgBB low emissions and has a fire resistance rating of Bfl-s1.
Based on polyurethane resin chemistry, the system is more abrasion and wear resistant than epoxy counterparts, making it more applicable for organisations engaging with RPA or robotic process automation where a surface may be subject to repetitive mechanical motion that can wear the surface more easily.
Polyurethanes are also more flexible than epoxies, offering static crack-bridging capabilities that makes them particularly suited to use on intermediate floors or mezzanine levels.
With over 30 years of experience, Concrete Flooring Solutions Ltd have been involved with some of the largest clients and contractors within the construction industry, installing in excess of 180,000m2 of concrete flooring, composite metal decking and related protective resin-based coatings annually.
Installed over a period of 3 weeks, the team at CFS carried out all preparation and coating work across the site under a swift programme designed to turn over the site and get it operational as quickly as possible.
Sartorius, which is headquartered in Germany and recently reported significant double-digit growth rates in sales revenue and earnings, plans to commence manufacturing at the new Havant site next month, creating close to 100 new jobs in the local community.
