Live Mock Up Lab At £10m Defra Development

SES has recently completed a live mock-up laboratory for the scientific users to assess the concept of at its £10m mechanical and electrical building services contract.

The lab was specifically built under the request of Defra and the Veterinary Laboratories Association (VLA) as part of the £31.7m VLA Laboratories Project at its Weybridge site in Surrey.

This comprises the construction of a new 10,000m2 combined laboratory and office building with a separate 1200m2 Energy Centre.

Identified at an early stage in the development, the users recognised the need for a mock-up of their laboratory, many of which are containment areas, to also benchmark the operation and quality of the new build.

In conjunction, this also allowed SES to test the service containment seal principles that were to be adopted in the final installation.

These had been designed by the company to prevent the migration of fumigant and pathogens from lab to lab.

Pressure tested to a +100pa and -100pa the seals passed both tests and just as importantly for the company, their build ability and installation methods.

These methods are now to be applied in the building (Further detailed information on the methods used is given below).

When complete, the new four-storey development will have a built-in capacity to cope with any future large-scale serological testing requirements for livestock disease outbreaks such as foot and mouth.

It will also be used for research and diagnosis into bacterial diseases of farm livestock, especially tuberculosis in cattle.

Steve Edwards, VLA's Chief Executive commented, "This new facility will enable VLA to increase its capacity to carry out veterinary research and offer more opportunities to improve disease diagnosis and to develop possible vaccines against farm animal diseases".

SES Regional Director - Central, David Mason, said: "Making it possible for the client and user groups to feel and touch their new environment meant they were more involved in the project from the outset.

Through this processes it has helped us further understand their needs and wants and deliver an enhanced quality installation." The principal contractor for the Development is Shepherd Construction Ltd and the building is due to officially open in Spring 2005.

Laboratory Mock-up Containment Seal Details: Mechanical Stainless steel service plates are being used which have been developed from SES's experience on similar projects.

The plates have piped services welded through the plates with connection threads at each end.

The plates are then clamped to the soffit that has previously been coated with a hygienic finish and sealed using fumigant resistant silicon.

The plates allow for pipework to pass from the services distribution level to a contained area without the risk of cross contamination.

The grilles and diffusers are sealed using the plenum flange and compressed sealant; a similar clamping method has been adopted to the method used for the pipe plates.

This eliminates the need for internal fixings that could damage the hygienic soffit finish.

Electrical SES has developed a flanged trunking section that uses the clamping method used on both the grille plenums and pipe plates.

A sacrificial membrane is sandwiched between two sections of the trunking section, which is punctured to allow the cabling to be installed.

Upon completion of the cabling installation a sealing compound is poured onto the membrane from outside the laboratory area, which expands as it cures.

This results in a containment seal both inside and outside of the trunking installation.

Further cabling can be installed at a future date by puncturing the seal and making good with further application of the liquid sealant.

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