Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility — Tema Industrial
Pharmaceutical manufacturing facility commission requiring 2400 sqm specification-grade industrial epoxy with ISO 14644 cleanroom adjacency + ESD-controlled assembly zones. Epoxy GH delivered substrate moisture remediation, FF50 floor flatness, IEC 61340-5-1 grounding network.
Project Profile
- Sector: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
- Scale: Approximately 3,200 m²
- Scope: Full-facility floor specification, wall base coving, chemical-resistant drain channel lining, and cleanroom antistatic coating
- Timeline: 14 weeks across phased production-live installation
A Tier-1 pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Tema Industrial Zone commissioned a complete epoxy flooring programme ahead of a GMP compliance audit. The facility operates across multiple controlled zones — raw material intake, granulation, packaging, and quality control laboratories — each carrying distinct contamination-control and chemical-resistance requirements.
Specification Challenge
Pharmaceutical manufacturing environments impose a standard of surface performance that tolerates no compromise. The specification brief identified four compounding demands:
- Zone segregation: Each production area required a chemically distinct coating profile. Granulation areas demanded solvent-resistant, seamless self-levelling systems. QC laboratories required antistatic dissipative finishes rated to ESD standards. Packaging corridors required heavy-traffic, abrasion-resistant topping with an integral slip-resistance classification.
- Coving continuity: GMP standards mandate a continuous coved skirting at all wall-floor junctions to eliminate bacterial harbouring points. Achieving radius consistency across 640 linear metres of coving — through doorways, column bases, and drainage inlets — demanded sustained craft-level precision.
- Active facility phasing: Production could not halt for fourteen consecutive weeks. The installation was structured around a rolling shutdown schedule across zones, requiring each completed zone to cure and pass inspection before the adjacent zone entered shutdown. Timing tolerances were measured in hours, not days.
- Substrate condition: The existing concrete slab carried legacy contamination from previous chemical spillage — hydrocarbon traces and calcium chloride residue — that required systematic remediation before any epoxy bond could be warranted.
Approach
Substrate preparation followed a multi-pass diamond grinding protocol, with contaminated sections receiving acid etch treatment and moisture-vapour suppressant primer application where readings exceeded the threshold for direct-bond systems.
Each zone received a specification-grade epoxy system selected to its functional profile:
- Granulation and mixing zones: 3 mm trowel-applied chemical-resistant epoxy with RAL-coded zone demarcation
- QC laboratories: 2 mm antistatic self-levelling epoxy, earthing grid installed and tested to IEC 61340-4-1
- Packaging and dispatch corridors: 4 mm heavy-duty broadcast epoxy with aluminium oxide slip-resistance aggregate
- Drain channels: Two-part epoxy mortar lining, full encapsulation to 150 mm above channel lip
Coving was formed in two-pass fibre-reinforced epoxy mortar, radius-checked with a continuous gauge template throughout installation.
Outcome
The completed facility passed its GMP compliance audit without remedial action on any flooring element — a result the facility’s engineering team noted as uncommon in first-audit scenarios. Surface integrity checks across all zones confirmed zero delamination, full cove continuity, and ESD readings within specification at all test points. The phased delivery schedule was met in full, with zero production-day incursions beyond the agreed shutdown windows.
What This Project Demonstrates
Pharmaceutical manufacturing is among the most specification-exacting sectors an epoxy contractor will encounter. Zone-specific performance, GMP coving standards, antistatic compliance, and active-facility phasing represent a convergence of technical and logistical demands that only a practice with deep specification literacy can absorb without disruption. This project is representative of the institutional-grade briefs Epoxy GH has delivered across Ghana’s industrial corridor for over four decades — where the floor is not a finish, but a controlled-environment component.