BeamOne holds grand opening
CLINTON TWP — About 100 people attended Thursday's grand opening of BeamOne in the Victory Road Business Park.
BeamOne uses electron beams to sterilize new medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and tissues. Last week the Butler County facility began sterilizing new medical equipment manufactured by MEDRAD, which has a facility across the street from BeamOne in the business park.
The company was founded in 2005 by Glenn Thibault, president and chief executive officer; Larry Gabele, chief financial officer; and Tom Stephan, vice president of business development; with facilities now in Denver; San Diego; Lima, Ohio; and Costa Rica, employing more than 100 people, 21 of which are at the Victory Road facility.
Gabele and Thibault thanked multitudes of people for the development of the new building, including the Community Development Corporation of Butler County; Pittsburgh Regional Alliance; MEDRAD and Massaro, the building's designer and contractor.
Diane Sheets, the CDC's manager of business development, formerly the CDC executive director, pointed out that it took a team of people to get the BeamOne project completed.
"Not for one minute of this project was one person responsible for its success, but it took all of us from people in California to Pittsburgh to Harrisburg to Butler to make this happen," Sheets said.
Dewitt Peart, president of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, said BeamOne's presence in the county will enhance the medical device industry within the Pittsburgh region, and that it "greatly boosts regional competitiveness within this sector."
The facility includes equipment worth $3.5 million within a bunker of concrete to sterilize products of MEDRAD and other companies, as well as a large storage floor for the pre- and post-irradiated boxes.
Using a klystron, the sterilization process takes 480 volts of electricity and amplifies that to 100,000 volts by exciting electrons with magnets and vacuum pressure. Those electrons are then sent through a scanner that passes through boxes of medical devices.
These boxes are loaded on a carousel of small metal carts that look a lot like the carts that carry luggage to airplane holds, only smaller. These carts travel a circular track being scanned by electrons at a rate of 1 foot per minute to 20 feet per minute, depending on the needed exposure time.
After one pass through the scan, the carts are mechanically lifted and turn 180 degrees and sent back through the scanner, so that both sides are exposed for sterilization.
Chris Bock, director of technology, said this process completes sterilization in 15 minutes.
Sam Liang, MEDRAD president, who was on a tour of the facility said the process the company has been using could take up to a day or two to complete, "so this is a major accomplishment that will really help us provide our product more rapidly to customers."
Each cart carries a meter that measures the radiation dosage it received and each meter is digitally coded and scanned to keep track of the process and how it is being delivered.
"We are happy to be here in Butler County and can't wait for the day that we blow out this wall and build again," Thibault said, pointing to the new wall behind him, already talking about expansion.
