Almac Building, Northern Ireland

The Almac Group is an established contract development and manufacturing organisation providing an extensive range of integrated services across the drug development lifecycle to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. The international company is a privately owned organisation that has grown organically over the past five decades. As part of the expansion, Almac required an electrically conducting floor offering explosion control for a 2,400 m2 flammable solvents’ storage area. Undesirable static electricity can damage electronic components, cause dust and/or solvent explosion as well as the ignition of flammable liquids.

The client approached GMP Industrial Ltd, with the following requirements:
• As a chemically resistant product to a solvents warehouse
• As a product which achieves a maximum RE figure of 10^6 ohm per DIN EN 1081
• Can be patch repaired (albeit with some degree of visual difference)
• As a floor finish which is suitable for use with a VNA forklift truck

The area was designed to be operated by VNA Forklift trucks. This meant that after the floor was installed, saw cuts would be introduced onto the floor to create the paths and safety rails for the high-reach VNA trucks to operate. This caused a major problem with the design of the copper grid path to an earthing point as at any point this could be damaged during this operation. The engineers at Almac worked closely with the technical department at Arturo under the guidance of an electrostatic expert to design a copper grid path that would  not be damaged by the VNA safety rails operation.

The project was extremely challenging due to the size of the area and number of rackings involved, but mostly to the sensitivity of the area and the mandatory explosion control measures. Arturo works very closely with GMP Industrial and was able to assist with site support and flooring specifications.  Arturo’s International Technical Manager visited site in Northern Ireland to finalise the specification for the project in conjunction with an independent electrostatic consulting expert.

Any cracks or necessary repairs were carried out by GMP Industrial Ltd with Arturo EP1500 Epoxy Repair Mortar. The existing concrete received shot-blasting as the subfloor pre-treatment. The surface was then made dust-free by vacuuming thoroughly with a good industrial vacuum cleaner. GMP Industrial Ltd applied a coat of Arturo EP6500 Primer which cured in 16 hours. A coat of Arturo EP6200 Scratch Coat was then applied and left to cure for approx. 16 hours. After the previous layer hardened, GMP Industrial Ltd applied self-adhesive copper strips to the substrate to dissipate the electrostatic charge (grids of maximum 40 m², connected to a ring pipe that is 10 cm from the outer edge of the floor. The minimum number of ground points per room was two). A roller coat of Arturo EP6400 Primer was applied and left to dry for 8 hours. Arturo EP6400 Primer is water containing. Therefore, care was taken to prevent the humidity from rising too much and reaching the dew point. GMP Industrial Ltd and site managers ensured good/sufficient ventilation as well as increasing the temperature in the room. Dehumidifiers were also adapted to the room. After the previous layer hardened, GMP Industrial applied the Arturo EP2480 Self-smoothing Floor in a layer thickness of approx. 1.5 mm which cured in approx. 16 hours.

The installation of 2,400m2 occurred very smoothly throughout October 2022. The testing and project signing off by an external party was carried out and issued in November 2022. The client was very pleased with the final floor finish. Almac has already confirmed further projects of a similar nature in which they would like to continue working with Arturo and GMP Industrial.