In 2020, biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific needed to scale up its operations to match the rapidly increasing demand for COVID-19 sample collection tubes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thermo Fisher decided to expand one of its existing facilities in Lenexa, Kansas to meet the demand. The 120,000-square-foot | 11,150-square-meter expansion would allow the company to produce viral transport media (VTM) and scale production from 50,000 VTM tubes weekly to more than 8 million. Despite a project of this size usually taking more than a year to complete, Thermo Fisher needed the renovation completed in only eight weeks.

InSite Group, a Kansas City-based consulting engineering design services group, completed the building’s infrastructure in five weeks. After Insite Group completed the physical structure, Rand Construction designed, coordinated, and installed the building’s heating and cooling system. Due to the compressed schedule, the team could not preplan and would design the piping systems as they went. Rand installed 2 – 8″ | DN50 – DN300 carbon steel pipe joined by Victaulic Installation-Ready™ Grooved Technology pipe couplings and fittings. The coupling design has no loose parts, requires no disassembly and allowed installers to push the coupling onto the grooved ends of the pipe and tighten just two bolts, saving valuable installation time in an already-compressed project. In two days, the team installed more than 1,000 feet | 305 meters of pipe. 

By ensuring safety and efficiency, the Thermo Fisher project was completed on schedule, in a matter of eight weeks. The partnership and collaboration between Rand Construction and Victaulic led to a successful outcome, without incident, ensuring that Thermo Fisher would be able to rapidly produce VTM tubes to help support the worldwide battle against COVID-19.

Internal Links:

Victaulic Helps Thermo Fisher Scale Operations for COVID-19 Sample Processing in Record Time, Victaulic

External Links: 

Successful Renovation Aids Thermo Fisher Scientific in COVID-19 Response, PM Engineer