This pharmaceutical company, located in Riverview, Mich., self-funded a 2012 expansion that more than doubled its production capacity. Walbridge served as construction manager on the relatively small yet sophisticated project.
Ash Stevens manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (API).
Ash Stevens is privately held and with its highly-skilled team of employees is well respected in the field of oncology for the commercialization and manufacturing of APIs.
To accommodate the expansion, Walbridge fitted-out a wing of Ash Stevens’ existing facility for the installation of three, multi-ton reaction vessels. This required increasing the floor-to-ceiling height of a portion of the wing by six feet. The team also installed a 1.5-square-meter filter dryer, as well as related equipment. Innovative plans were put in place to remove portions of the facility’s siding and roof in order to place the massive pieces of new equipment, all the while allowing Ash Stevens to continue uninterrupted operations in an adjacent area.
In addition to installing three reactors and the filter dryer, Walbridge installed a boiler, chiller, scrubber, environmental vent condensers and five temperature control units in the outfitted wing. More than a mile of piping was installed for the placement of Ash Stevens’ new process systems.
In just 13 months, Ash Stevens’ Process Development and Manufacturing Facility expansion reached substantial completion. The upgraded facility is now capable of producing batch sizes of up to 250 kilograms – a substantial increase to the capacity but within the same footprint.