On December 1, 2014, Almac sent a five-person team to the Malaysian town of Rawang Selango, located close to Kuala Lampur. Nordion, which manufactures sterilization irradiators, had a devastating fire in early 2014, and are in the process of rebuilding their facility. The Almac team is currently installing a new tote/carrier machine to replace the one we built for them over 20 years ago, adding a few key improvements that weren’t available when the original machine was built.
The first machine consisted of hydraulic drivers on the roof. With the rebuild, we’ve switched to an electric winch-style drive mechanism and upgraded the storage area to a newer style of machine. For the most part, the source pass and the interim were built off existing drives.
Work was initially expected to have been completed by January 2015. However, with all the damage to the building, extraction of the metal and lead structures that melted in the extreme heat, and the overall complexity of working on a site devastated by fire, the process has been slower than anticipated. The team has remained in Malaysia to ensure installation is completed to Almac standards.
Despite significant language and cultural barriers (including getting used to a work pace that’s a little slower than North American standards) and a hot, humid climate that had four of the five team members laid up sick for the first few weeks, the project is progressing well and is expected to wrap in mid-February.
See photos from the project below:
