The new production hall of Medicontur in Jambek is ready

The company recently completed an unusual project: SWIETELSKY Hungary Kft. The company carried out the interior construction and fit-out work for the new multifunctional hall building of Medicontur Medical Technology Kft. in Zsámbék. A special feature of the project was the creation of a clean room and the associated airlock system.

With over 30 years of history and more than 7 million implants manufactured and sold, Medicontur has established a solid reputation as an expert in intraocular lenses in ophthalmology.

The German-based medical and ophthalmic aids manufacturer has expanded its existing production facility with a new 6,900 square metre unit to further strengthen its position in the implantable lens market. With this complex investment, Medicontur has significantly modernised its manufacturing environment and increased the reliability of its products for its partners and patients. The lenses produced here are world class. Medicontur is present in several countries in Europe, 90 percent of the products manufactured in Hungary are sold on the global market and its healthcare products are available in more than 70 countries.

Swietelsky Magyarország was responsible for the internal construction of the new facility, including architectural works, building and process engineering, power and DC works, building automation, fire alarm system. The works were carried out in one year. The work had to be coordinated with the work of the co-contractors for the second phase and with the warranty repair work carried out by the first phase contractor.

Partial demolition was necessary to install the support structures

As we learned from Agnas Barna, project manager of the Swietelsky Magyarország Kft., they faced many challenges during the implementation.

At the time the hall was built, the concept of the interior layout was not yet finalised, so the existing structural dimensions were not always suitable for the new design. The installation of large equipment in the existing hall and the steel wall and slab supports for the cleanroom panels could only be achieved by partial demolition of the existing buildings. The same problem was encountered in the construction of systems connected to the outside or with external units. In addition, the new Medicontur facility is connected to the existing and continuously operating old hall by a neck connection, so that some systems could only be connected during outages.

The design of the clearing was the special feature of the project

All sectors face the same challenge of building a so-called clean room and servicing the technology that goes into it. A cleanroom is a plant or laboratory area in which a low particle concentration environment is maintained: the system injects the blown air through special filters into the space with a minimum particle count. The engineering works in the hall in Jambek included heating and cooling, a compressed air system, ventilation and water and duct systems.

The ventilation system has separate air handlers for the clean rooms. The cleanroom anemostats are equipped with H13 end-point filters, and pressure is maintained by a VAV valve on both the supply and exhaust sides," says Ágnes Barna. "The ventilation of the other office and manufacturing spaces is provided by 2 air handlers per floor. Because of the production, it is not only necessary to maintain proper pressure levels in the clean room, but also in some of the smaller production rooms. The total volume flow rate of the 6 air handlers installed exceeds 125,000 m3/h on the supply side due to the air exchange rate required for the technology." Production also requires the provision of heating and cooling energy during the winter and summer. For this purpose, 4 heat pumps and a dry cooler were installed.

The size of the cooling and heating network is several times that of a conventional hall building of similar size: nearly 7,500 fm of piping was installed for this system alone.

A sluice system separates the different areas

In the case of high-purity areas, material and personnel airlocks connect areas with different degrees of cleanliness. Their function is to provide a connection between two rooms. They are also used for the movement of people and goods.

"Here in the Jambek hall, the different areas of production are separated by a system of sluices outside the clean room, and the flow direction and filtration of the incoming dust is controlled by regulating the pressures. Personnel and material transfer sluices have been installed at several points in the building, not only in the clean room", the project manager explained. The floor-to-wall-ceiling connections, the doors and windows, the inspection doors, the mechanical and electrical fittings all had to be made to an airtight design. "The requirements for airlock access and egress imposed conflicting demands, which had to be met by various combinations of low-current devices and hatch fittings."

Special architectural solutions were also needed

On the floor of the existing reinforced concrete frame hall, the clean room "house in house" unit was implemented with a metal sandwich panel wall and slab structure with steel grid support structure. The dry construction of the project was unusual in that high height walls were constructed with strong rib bracing, with a sliding connection due to the possible deflection of the end slab. All suspended ceilings were fixed due to the ventilation system, but due to the complex mechanical and electrical installations, in many cases only self-supporting construction was possible, with insufficient space for suspension.

However, a large number of devices requiring maintenance were installed above the fixed ceiling, so they had to be fitted with significantly more revision openings than usual, with an airtight design.

A significant number of sockets and IT endpoints were required to implement the power and low-voltage system, which will involve thousands of metres of cable being installed in the building. From the building automation point of view, hundreds of sensors will be installed to control the pressure in the rooms. It is important to mention that the hall has been fitted with a major automation system, which has made it possible to achieve complete control of heat, humidity and particles.