Aerocom (UK) is on its way to installing one of its biggest ever pneumatic tube systems (PTS) at the 150-acre Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
The firm has recently completed the full-scale upgrade of an existing 2.5 km tube system at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, and is hoping to win its tenders to install 700 metres of additional tubing at the Cambridge Cancer Research Centre and a new Women and Children’s Hospital, both yet to be completed. It follows its installation of a further 1.5 kms of pneumatic tubing at Papworth Hospital when it relocated to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus six years ago. The Nottingham-based firm also installed a 50-metre cash tube system in the PFI main hospital’s shopping concourse, connecting the M&S Simply Food store to the retailer’s office.
Tom Hughes, Aerocom (UK) MD, said: “The recent Addenbrooke’s upgrade was a complex project, but one completed in almost record time.”
At Addenbrooke’s, Aerocom (UK) replaced all the associated equipment to the existing PTS tubing in under three weeks. This included upgrading to its AC3000 system, installing 36 interconnecting ‘stations’, and 60 metres of additional tubing, to create a new ‘fast-track point-to-point system’ for the A&E department. A new linear ‘couple’ has also been installed to connect the existing four independent zones, with extra slots for two new zones as required. A new auto-unload station will be installed in the next few weeks.
With a modern PTS, samples or drugs are placed in airtight PVC canisters at one of the ‘stations’, a desired destination is programmed in, and the canister is propelled there via an often complex network of tubing, mostly hidden in ceiling spaces and service areas. The systems are computerised, and every transportation is RFID tagged.
