Go BackACE Refrigeration is pleased to officially announce that we have been awarded the refrigeration contract for the new national centre for the Scottish Blood Transfusion Centre at Heriot Watt Research Park in Edinburgh.
The new facility will be a hub for processing, testing, supply, research and development for blood and human donor tissues and cells, and will consolidate and modernise services which are currently carried out over a number of sites.
We assisted the main contractor Interserve Kajima with their winning bid and expect to be on site this September.
The finished project is expected to open in mid-2017 when more than 400 staff will move to the new centre.
ACE Refrigeration has a long-standing relationship with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.
In 2002 we were responsible for the air conditioning and refrigeration installations at the West of Scotland Blood Transfusion Centre at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow.
Our advanced indemnified design allowing for the accurate and automated means for monitoring and mapping temperature in blood storage and blood processing areas was pivotal in ACE Refrigeration securing that contract for 33 refrigeration and air conditioning installations including 14 cold rooms, freezer rooms and an incubation room.
The requirement for refrigerated storage comprised of eight +4°C rooms, four -30°C rooms with -20°C ante rooms and two -40°C rooms with -20°C ante rooms. Given the delicate nature of the blood products stored here, temperature control was paramount so the design incorporated security of operation with 100% standby plant.
During those 13 years we have continually serviced and maintained the refrigeration plant, the result being only one compressor failure out of the 33 separate systems installed.
Since then our expertise in this field has grown with projects including the installation of 14 Laboratory Cold Rooms at the New South Glasgow Hospital to the south of the River Clyde in Glasgow in 2012. Applications here included 1 x -40°C room, 10 x +4°C Rooms, 3 x -20°C rooms and 2 x +37°C. These were all supplied, installed, calibrated and commissioned according to NHS Blood storage standards.
During the summer of 2013, we completed two phases of a project for SAFC, the custom manufacturing and services business unit of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, to build a suite of seven cold rooms as part of an expansion to their Centre of Excellence biologics manufacturing campus in Irvine, Ayrshire. Phase one consisted of a freezer room, a raw materials room and a large temperature controlled warm room.
Our clients range from SAFC – the custom manufacturing and services business unit of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, the West of Scotland National Blood Transfusion Centre, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Aptuit and Piramal alongside some of the best universities and research centres in the country.
Last year, ACE Refrigeration was also awarded the National Framework Contract for all clinical and non-clinical refrigeration Service and Maintenance by NHS Scotland; running from the beginning of 2014 – 2017.
