Norland to support Astrium's space exploration
Norland’s ‘critical environment’ team will provide facilities and engineering maintenance services to Astrium’s ‘clean-room manufacturing facilities’ in Stevenage and Portsmouth.
Such controlled environments must be managed to tight tolerances as is essential to the successful design, build and testing of satellite and space systems. Astrium’s Portsmouth site designs, builds and tests advanced payloads for mobile and military communication satellites, whilst Stevenage houses Astrium’s spacecraft design and build facility. Both manufacturing facilities are highly-controlled clean-rooms where dust particles, air pressure and humidity levels are tightly managed.
Norland’s critical services team will provide Astrium with tailored facilities management services including planned and preventative electrical, mechanical, building fabrication and business solutions. The service provider’s pioneering Critical Environment Risk Management (CERM) approach will be used to reflect the strict parameters and performance criteria within which the team will need to work.
Patrick Cahill-Grant, head of facilities management UK, Astrium, said: “We were impressed by Norland’s track record in effective risk management in the context of highly sensitive, six sigma manufacturing situations. They were able to demonstrate how they would deliver significant improvements in quality and financial return over the life of the contract.”
Martin Batstone, director of Norland’s manufacturing business, said: “Astrium in the UK is involved with so many prestigious projects including building the payloads and spacecraft structures for some of the world’s most sophisticated telecommunications satellites. They are also prime contractor for the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Solar Orbiter and leading on the development of the Mars rover vehicle for the ESA ExoMars programme. Always working to tight production schedules it’s hard to imagine a more critical environment. We look forward to being part of their ongoing success.”
As part of the contract Norland will pursue opportunities for energy efficiency in keeping with its ISO 14001 environmental management systems accreditation and will actively promote the use of local resources as part of its sustainability policy.
