STERIS Applied Sterilization Technologies (AST) has announced several expansion projects over the past year throughout our global sterilization and laboratory network. We’re excited to provide updates on these projects as part of our commitment to providing both global and local Customers with processing capacity.
Americas
Chester, New York
Construction has finished at the new Chester, New York electron beam facility, with validation completed in late July. The new E-beam operation, which includes dual 30 Kw, 10 MeV vertical accelerators, is located directly across the street from our existing gamma facility. The Chester campus is approximately 55 miles northwest of New York City, offering flexibility in radiation processing and proximity to the ports of New York and New Jersey.
Mark Thomas, Vice President of Operations and Technology, comments, “we are extremely excited to see this expansion project come to conclusion and are pleased to offer new capacity and capabilities to our Customers. This new high volume electron beam operation complements our existing gamma irradiation facility, which contains two large volume continuous irradiators and one specialized batch processing irradiator. The Chester, NY site was originally built in 1992, expanded in 2000, again in 2012 and now 2017, demonstrating our commitment to strategically grow with our Customers.”
Spartanburg, South Carolina
The Spartanburg, South Carolina facility has completed its ethylene oxide expansion with the addition of two small-volume chambers. The new chambers provide additional capacity to Customers manufacturing small volume lots, and are capable of running “cold” processing cycles and parametric release.
With the addition of the two new chambers, existing and future Customers will benefit from having multiple validated chambers and the increased capacity will reduce turn times. Matt Brennan, Director of Operations, comments, “the new chambers further demonstrate our commitment to Customers by expanding our small-volume ethylene oxide processing options.”
Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia
Tullamore, Ireland
Tullamore, Ireland, one of our largest sites within the EMEAA region, is undergoing a major expansion in order to secure capacity for a number of our European Customers in the years to come. The expansion includes a second E-beam facility, which is due to launch in late 2017. In 2018, we will also be making additional EO capacity available and adding a new, purpose-built laboratory expansion.
Lorraine Moran, STERIS AST Regional Director for Ireland, states, “this expansion is excellent news and supports our commitment to providing both our global and local Customers with processing options. It not only ensures the capacity for existing and new Customers to grow, but also gives small indigenous Irish Customers the assurance of a sterile solution for their new product developments close to home.”
Venlo, The Netherlands
Three new 32-pallet EO chambers are being added to our existing Venlo site in the Netherlands. These chambers will employ positive pressure technology (positive pressure, as opposed to 100% ethylene oxide). This expansion supports the market demand going forward to ensure we continue to meet our existing and future Customer requirements. Venlo 2.0 is scheduled to open in late 2017.
Komenda, Slovenia
STERIS AST is expanding its sterilization services offering within Europe with a new greenfield build in Komenda, Slovenia. The state-of-the-art facility will offer electron beam sterilization and bioburden reduction services, as well as warehousing, to medical device and other healthcare product manufactures in the region. The decision to locate in Slovenia was of a strategic nature, supporting the future requirements of our Customers within Europe, as this location provides an excellent route to market.
Kuala Ketil, Malaysia
Due to increased Customer demand, we have an expansion of our ethylene oxide capacity at our plant in Kuala Ketil, Malaysia, scheduled for mid-2018.
