Bausch & Lomb, the premiere manufacturer of eye care and surgical products, needed their 5,800 sq. ft. sterile packaging room built on a “fast track” basis and did not have the luxury of waiting until building plans were completed before construction began.
The demanding environmental requirements for the room required “thinking outside the box” and conventional methods could not provide the quality assurance the customer needed. Each component of the HVAC system had to be evaluated for its suitability and the delivery time of each item was critical in keeping the project’s timetable on track.
To meet these needs, Air Masters designed a technique to provide 24 air changes per hour of highly filtered air by designing a system that utilized dual primary circulation fans to deliver 17,000 cfm of air through 40 HEPA ceiling filters. The air returns to the system low at the base of the wall through its cavity to help control troublesome microscopic particles. Cooling for the room is supplied by two secondary air conditioning systems that introduce conditioned air into the primary air stream. The cooling units stage and cycle to meet the room’s needs and the room is balanced
to maintain a positive pressure at all times to help keep out contaminants.
The requirements were demanding and the humidity had to be controlled year-round which required two solid-state steam generators capable of producing 70 gallons of water per hour. Everything installed was designed in pairs so that the room would never be completely out of service.
When projects move this quickly, coordination between team members is critical to the success of the project. Each trade had to know what the other needed and they had to plan ahead so there would be no surprises or delays.
Our design and project management team was presented the “Thinking Outside the Box” award at Bausch & Lomb’s invitational golf tournament shortly after the projects completion.
