Coherent, Glasgow

LIFE SCIENCES LASER & PHOTONICS LABORATORY

Keppie was appointed by Coherent to oversee the proposed extension to their Scottish manufacturing and assembly hub. Coherent are the leading worldwide laser supplier in the world and one of the world’s leading Life Science and Medical photonics manufacturers and innovators.

With headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley, California, and offices spanning the globe. They produce laser solutions for a variety of life science applications including Medical Component Production, Biomedical Therapeutics, Eximer Refractive Surgery, Microfluidic Solutions and Optogenetics, etc. As such, they design and produce many of their own components and sub-assemblies – including fibres, crystal and wafer growth. Biomedical lasers are experiencing strong growth, with a move toward diode and fibre lasers. Current trends in biomedical laser therapeutics are characterizing the dynamic nature of this important market.

The extended facility has effectively more than doubled the size / capacity of the existing facility (30,000sq.ft. to 65,000sq. ft.) providing a wide variety of accommodation for multioccupational use by numerous departments including 10,000sq. ft. of class 1000 and class 10,000 clean rooms, manufacturing and assembly space, environmental testing rooms, laboratories, research & development suites, offices and flexible meeting spaces. The existing bistro/café space was also increased to cater for the proposed increase in staff numbers.

Keppie’s in-house planning consultants provided a wealth of previous planning experience and coordinated pre-application discussions with Glasgow City Council Planning Dept. This quickly identified any additional criteria likely to be required. This helped mitigate any unforeseen programme delays by acknowledging that the client would require providing Transport Assessments and Travel Plans as supplementary information to the application.