GF Piping Systems for AstraZeneca Brixham Research

Technical Case Study - Brixham Environmental Laboratory The brief for the project was to design, supply and install the pipe work and instrumentation for a Water Treatment Plant at the newly completed husbandry facility (Block M) on the AstraZeneca, Brixham Environmental Laboratory site in Devon. AstraZeneca, Brixham Environmental Laboratory was first-established in 1948 as a testing facility. The site at Brixham now has modern, purpose-built office and laboratory facilities for over 85 staff, and continually develops its skills and services to meet ever-increasing environmental requirements. AstraZeneca’s Brixham Environmental Laboratory provides a multi-disciplinary service to AstraZeneca and other pharmaceutical and chemical industries for the investigation and resolution of environmental issues and regulatory testing. Experienced laboratory teams investigate whether pharmaceuticals, other everyday products and wastes remain in the environment and what their effects may be in air, water and soil environments. The primary objective for the project, was to provide a good stable water supply to the specifications required, while the instrumentation had to be simple and intuitive for the user. Due to the remote location of the Laboratory, factors such as ease of operation and maintenance become more significant as the company looked to build up a robust support system within the locality. The £4.3 million funding for the development of the ground floor of Block M was sanctioned in 2007 and having released the budget AstraZeneca Engineering put the contract to design and build the Water Treatment Plant out to tender. The contract was won by Boultings, the solutions group that provides design, project management, installation and maintenance services. Having won the contract Boultings specified Georg Fischer ABS pipe work and GF Type 134 electrically actuated ball valves and Type 546 ball valves, which were the main controlling valves. However, it was only at this point that Boultings became aware that GF could offer a highly cost effective instrumentation solution also. Sanjay Patel, Key Account Manager at GF spoke to the engineers and designers at Boultings and was able to help them specify the equipment they needed. The team at Boultings were pleasantly surprised at how cost-effective the SIGNET instrumentation was compared to the other, more traditional suppliers they had been looking at. One of the main reasons for this cost differential is that the SIGNET range is manufactured from plastic while other suppliers continue to offer metal instruments. Sanjay Patel explains, “The cost of metal around the world is increasing rapidly and we have seen this in our pipeline business with people happy to replace carbon steel or other metals with ABS, PVC etc. The same is now true of instrumentation.” Of great interest is the diversity of instrumentation that has been specified from the SIGNET range to monitor such elements within the system as flow, level, temperature, pressure, pH and salinity. The fact that all of the pipe work, valves, fittings and instrumentation could be sourced from the one supplier obviously leads to benefits in terms of ease of integration and value for money. SIGNET instruments used in the installation include: the Type 2551 Magmeter that can be installed into pipes ranging in size from 0.5 to 12 inches and is able to measure flow within the range of 0.05 to 10m/s with a maximum pressure rating of 10.3bar at 25C and a 4 to 20mA power source; the Type 8450 integral level/ pressure transmitter operating with the Type 2450 pressure sensor offers a 15 to 85C operating temperature, a 0 to 17bar operating pressure and a level range from 0 to 170m; the Type 5900 Salinity Monitor which has a backlit alphanumeric LCD and analogue dial. The water’s conductivity and pH is monitored using SIGNET instruments before any salts, which are

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