New installation boosts Extract Technology’s expansion plans
International containment provider Extract Technology has completed installation at a West Yorkshire-based medical manufacturing facility.
The £8m state-of-the-art unit at the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary’s Acre Mill site produces specialist medicines for the NHS.
The site now includes specialised manufacturing areas and a quality control laboratory, which was constructed by Interserve of Castleford and SES of York.
At the heart of its non-sterile product manufacturing area are four dust control booths with recirculatory downflow air systems designed to protect both product and operatives. The booths feature optimum operator protection through controlled airflow, from Extract Technology.
Work on the facility started last year after the Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust’s successful bid to have the facility built in the town.
Extract Technology, which is based in Huddersfield, sees this recently completed installation as just part of the company’s expanding product range for the hospital and medical facilities market. Last year, a similar facility containing downflow containment booths was completed for University College Hospital, and plans are under way to install four aseptic isolators for Airedale NHS Trust and one for the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.
Mike Davies of Extract Technology was delighted that the company was able to provide the facility with dust control booths manufactured locally. ‘We are used to exporting our booths all over the world and sending engineers out to facilities on all continents, so it made a pleasant change to find an installation so close to our factory. Our engineers were able to call in whenever necessary and this led to a close and successful working relationship with the client.’
Production manager John Harwood at the manufacturing facility, said: ‘The existing facility was too small and in need of major refurbishment. Coincidentally, we had one of the world’s leading manufacturers of Dust Control Booths right on our doorstep and this joint venture with Extract Technology proved very successful. The new site has the added benefit of freeing up valuable space on the infirmary site which can now be developed for clinical purposes.’
The unit employs around 45 people and replaces a former facility inside Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. The manufacturing unit has around 1,000 customers in both primary care and secondary care with more than 90% of sales made to organisations outside the trust.
