Creating the future of clean rooms

Für den Neubau von Fresenius Kabi USA, am Produktionsstandort Melrose Park, war Lindner für ca. 12.000 m² Reinräume verantwortlich. © www.Lindner-Group.com / For the new Fresenius Kabi USA building at the Melrose Park production site, Lindner built 12,000 m² of clean rooms in classes C,D and CNC. © www.Lindner-Group.com

Speziell für dieses Projekt entwickelte Lindner die Slide Pharma 80, ein flächenbündiges Schiebetürsystem mit einem lichten Durchgangsmaß von bis zu 1.700 mm. © www.Lindner-Group.com / Especially for this project Lindner developed the ‘Slide Pharma 80’, as a flush sliding door system with a clear passage dimension of up to 1,700 mm. © www.Lindner-Group.com

In den Personenschleusen finden sich individuell gefertigte Gaderoben aus HPL & Polycarbonat sowie reinraumgerechte Sitzmöbel und Abfallbehälter. © www.Lindner-Group.com / In the personnel locks, there are individually manufactured gowning rooms made of HPL & Polycarbonat as well as cleanroom-compatible seating. © www.Lindner-Group.com

Die Türeinheiten Swing Pharma sind mit einem doppelgegenseitigen Verriegelungssystem ausgestattet. Zusätzlich zur Schließautomatik zeigt eine flächenbündig eingebaute LED-Leuchte den aktuellen Raumstatus an. © www.Lindner-Group.com / The ‘Swing Pharma’ door units are equipped with an interlocking system. In addition to the automatic locking, a flush-mounted LED light shows the current room status. © www.Lindner-Group.com

Since its entry in the U.S. market in 2008, the healthcare company Fresenius Kabi has grown to become a leading provider of generic injectable drugs. In the U.S., the company focuses on the development of generic pharmaceutical products, IV solutions and pumps, transfusion devices and cellular therapies and clinical nutrition products. The company employs more than 3,300 people in the U.S. and its headquarters is in Lake Zurich, Illinois. Also located in Illinois is the company’s Melrose Park pharmaceutical manufacturing campus which is being expanded into one of the largest and most advanced sterile injectable drug production facilities in the world. As part of this expansion, the Melrose Park site includes a new building with 12,000 m² of clean room space according to plans by the architectural firm CRB Group and includes new aseptic filling equipment, highly developed isolator technology, freeze dryers as well as areas for pharmaceutical formulation and material storage. A conference centre, offices and a cafeteria are also included on the new campus. At the end of the construction period, additional cleanrooms were built in the same building according to plans by Genesis Architects from Philadelphia, all equipped with Lindner cleanroom systems.

Cleanroom challenge USA: new and clean solutions

Lindner Clean Rooms was responsible for the expansion of various cleanroom areas from September 2017 to the end of 2020, including intensive planning services. For this, the Lindner team worked closely with the planners of the CRB Group and with the Fresenius Kabi engineering and project team. Together, they designed suitable solutions with partly new product developments. The coordination of the construction site done by the Gilbane Building Company as Main Contractor. The assembly of the cleanroom systems was also executed to a very high standard by the local assembly specialist Thorne and an experienced Lindner Supervisor Team. Specific activities such as sealing work, door commissioning and commissioning were carried out by Lindner in cooperation with local partners such as Dormakaba USA.

Individual solutions for cleanroom fit-out with Lindner

Fresenius Kabi, also had its own design requirements and specifications, which led to the development of a new sliding door system and a customized design of glass wall air returns. Throughout the building, various cleanroom classes C, D and CNC are distributed over two floors, all of which are equipped with modular Lindner ceiling, wall and door systems. Narrow airlock corridors or personnel airlocks lead off from the extensive corridors, which in turn lead to the actual production areas. The corresponding ventilation technology – combined with supply/exhaust air diffusers in the ceiling and the return air shafts on the walls – is accommodated in the ceiling interstitial that are approximately three metres high. Lindner fit-out solutions are also found here, such as proofed guard rails for the walkable ceiling to protect the maintenance personnel from falling.

To simplify access and maintenance of the technology in the ceiling interstitial, the ‘Line 80S Type 2’ walkable ceiling system was selected, supplemented by cleanroom-compatible LED luminaires in various designs integrated flush into the ceiling elements. The walls were constructed with the flexible modular wall system ‘Lindner Pharma 80 C’ as a cladding or Bi-panel system. The Life Pharma 618 glass partitions as full glazing without intermediate profiles provide maximum transparency between the rooms and airlocks. The 120 pcs wall air returns were also installed as a visible full-glass version and enable up to 25 air changes per hour.

In keeping with Fresenius Kabi’s corporate colour, most of the doors were fitted with insulating glazing in blue powder-coated frames. Two different types were used:

- The Lindner ‘Swing Pharma’ with a door leaf thickness of 80 mm and various widths. The door units were equipped with both manual and automatic drives and an interlocking system. In addition to the automatic closing system, a flush-mounted LED light above the door indicates the current room status.

- Lindner designed the ‘Slide Pharma 80’ especially for the MPEX project, to match the ‘Logic Pharma 80 C’ wall system, as a flush sliding door system with a clear passage dimension of up to 1,700 mm. As with the ‘Swing Pharma’, the decision was made to use a slim, automatic drive combined with compliant safety sensors. In addition, Lindner installed robust stainless steel bumpers in front of the door elements as protection from the pallet jacks.

Special designs can also be found in the personnel locks: in addition to shoe racks and coat racks made of HPL and Polycarbonat, there is also seating and waste bins suitable for cleanrooms.

In total, Lindner installed over 12,000 m² of ceiling systems including approx. 1,600 LED lights, more than 9,000 m² of partition systems, almost 1,000 m² of Pharma glazing systems, over 100 flush hinged doors and 65 flush sliding doors of the ‘Slide Pharma 80’ type. Not only the development of special solutions, but given the total of one hundred 40-foot containers with products and materials had to be shipped, the logistics were a particular challenge, including strict customs regulations and country-specific requirements..