Alcon
- Client Name
- Alcon
- Location
- Tuas, Singapore
- Door Number
- 72
- Additional Products
- Automations, Ironmongery and Interlocking
Requirements
Alcon manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals, surgical equipment and devices, contact lenses and other vision care products; the company has been actively researching and manufacturing in this area for over 65 years. Alcon is one of the world’s largest eye care companies operating in 75 countries. Sales of pharmaceuticals for treatment of eye diseases have been growing at more than 20% per year in Asian markets and consequently the company has decided to expand and build a new production plant in Singapore.In 2009 Alcon broke ground on its first Asian pharmaceutical manufacturing plant . This 330,000 square-foot building, located on the southwest tip of the island nation, will employ more than 150 employees once production begins. The facility in Singapore will mainly manufacture sight-saving pharmaceuticals to be distributed throughout the growing Asian markets in a cost-effective and efficient manner. When the plant becomes operational, the company expects to manufacture at a rate of more than 53 million units per year by the end of the third year of operation.The new plant will provide pharmaceuticals for eye infections, glaucoma, dry eyes and eye inflammation. It will produce a range of the company’s bestselling products for the expanding Asian market, including: Travatan (travoprost), Patanol (olopatadine) and Vigamox (moxifloxacin) ophthalmic solutions, Tobradex ophthalmic ointment, and Systane eye drops.
Solution
Many of the pharmaceutical cleanrooms in Singapore have been built using traditional construction methods ie concrete block or stud wall with on site surface applied finishes. In Alcon’s case they specified a cleanroom wall panel system. This offered Alcon the advantages of a faster site build and faster sealing of the cleanroom envelope. It is also relatively easy to replace damaged areas either during or after construction and you are guaranteed a uniform finish across the whole cleanroom facility. These wall systems also come with their own steel doors but Dortek doors offered a number of key advantages:
- Dortek GRP doors are smooth, seamless and easy to clean whereas steel doors have seams and crevices which are hard to clean.
- When the surface of a steel door is scratched the core material will corrode due to the cleaning regime used within the cleanroom. Dortek doors will never corrode even when scratched.
- Dortek doors are user friendly, light and easy to operate. Steel doors are much heavier and when partnered with adverse pressure differentials can be extremely difficult to operate. Some of the doors on the Alcon project are over 2.8m high which would make them around 100kg if manufactured in steel.
- Re finishing of steel doors aswell as regular replacement of hinges and doorclosers (due to door weight) make the lifecycle costs on steel doors comparatively high. The coloured finish on a Dortek GRP door is built in during the moulding process so the door will never need re decoration during its lifetime.
Dortek has a long track record of integrating doors, frames and anciliaries into cleanroom wall panel systems and they will continue to work with both pharmaceutical companies and cleanroom panel manufactures to offer the best cleanroom solutions.