MANUFACTURING & INDUSTRIAL | FACTORIES

Project Silk

The manufacturing facility offers 6,000m2 of Required Functional Areas and 9,200m² in overall net built-up area, inclusive of building services, and constructed on two (2) levels. The Ground Level houses shipping/receiving, raw material storage (room temperature and refrigerated), process manufacturing, laboratories, packaging, finished goods storage (frozen), office/administrative spaces, employee support spaces (for approximately 70 employees), primary mechanical and electrical service rooms, IT rooms, and process support/storage spaces. The first and second levels primarily houses plant rooms including process and facility support equipment; HVAC units, process heating systems and electrical rooms.

The facility will be constructed at the Al Ain Nibras Aerospace Industrial Park which is located in Al Ain, UAE adjacent to Al Ain International airport, on its north side. The project site is 36,000m² in plot area.

The purpose of Project Silk was to design, construct, equip, and commission a purpose-built facility in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi for a Solvay- Strata Joint Venture in order to satisfy the requirements of a 20 year contract with The Boeing Company.

The Al Ain facility is capable of producing nominally net 410,000 kg/year (900k lb/year) of prepreg for sale to Boeing and use in the production of Boeing 777x empennages and floor beams in the US Pacific Northwest. The pre-preg will be manufactured to be nominally 1225mm on a 1350mm parent roll, and then cut to 150mm, 300mm, and 600mm final product widths.

Because of the use of chemicals and powders in some rooms, unique features included designing and constructing ATEX (explosion proof) rated rooms consisting of ATEX rated Overhead Cranes, ATEX rated MEP services (lights etc..) and wall mounted Jib Cranes.

The prepreg product is sensitive to Foreign Object Debris which is generally defined as unwanted particles 5Mμ and larger including insects. The manufacturing facility was therefore designed (with particular requirements for architectural and mechanical systems), constructed, and operated in accordance with the Solvay “Guidelines to Prevent Foreign Object Debris”.

Prepreg is also temperature sensitive and cures when it is not cooled (as is the resin used in pre-preg production). The allowable “out time” (time outside freezer) of the product is limited, and tracked to ensure the product does not cure beyond allowable limits prior to delivery to the customer.

Regular and close coordination and interaction with OEM supplier was very key to the successful delivery of the project.