Australia is now home to the Southern Hemisphere’s only large-scale mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility, a landmark achievement in global health security and sovereign capability. Located within the Monash Technology Precinct in Clayton South, Melbourne, Moderna’s new facility will produce vaccines annually for respiratory diseases. It will also provide Australia with the rapid-response capacity to deliver pandemic vaccines if needed.
Stainless steel plays a critical role in the facility, providing the purity, durability, and cleanability required for pharmaceutical production. It ensures system integrity for high-purity services such as water for injection, clean steam, compressed gases, and process waste, where contamination is not an option. Its corrosion resistance, ability to withstand rigorous sterilisation, and compatibility with stringent Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements make it an ideal material for this high-stakes application.
Pure Piping's role in delivering excellence
ASSDA Member Pure Piping was engaged to deliver the process scope, covering mechanical pipework, electrical design, procurement, installation, pressure testing, passivation, quality assurance, and commissioning. Their scope included over 4,750 metres of stainless steel tube, 2,650 fittings, 980 valves, 150 instruments, and multiple equipment items – all fabricated and installed to the highest pharmaceutical standards.
The facility included 316L stainless steel tube and fittings in both SF1 (mechanically polished, with a maximum Ra of 0.51 μm) and SF4 finishes (mechanically polished and then electropolished, with a maximum Ra of 0.38 μm), in accordance with the surface finish designations of the ASME BPE standard. Pure Piping also designed and fabricated custom stainless steel infrastructure including a 13,000 litre aqueous waste tank and stainless waste collection systems, in addition to installing 28 bespoke stainless steel ceiling service panels within clean rooms, designed to deliver gases, data, and power to laboratory workspaces.
Pure Piping’s use of orbital welding technology, Trimble digital set-out tools, borescope inspections, purge monitors, and passivation skids underscored its commitment to precision, safety, and efficiency. Welding was performed to rigorous inspection regimes, including golden weld procedures (referring to welds that cannot be visually inspected internally), to ensure the highest levels of craftmanship and compliance with both Australian and international standards.
Precision in stainless steel
Pure Piping's delivery on this project was defined by technical excellence and quality control.
Welding quality and traceability:
- Over 3,000 welds completed
- Full weld traceability and mapping, with unique welder IDs and extensive inspection records
- Orbital and hand held welding procedures developed to AS 3992 Pressure equipment - Welding and brazing qualification and ASME BPE standards
- Internal Argon purge gas monitoring and borescope inspections for high-purity welds, with additional testing on golden welds
- Employment of an in-house certified welding inspector to maintain stringent quality standards
Mechanical design services:
- Development and management of piping instrumentation diagrams (P&ID) libraries and edits
- 3D model conversion, clash coordination, and updates
- Detailed isometric and fabrication drawings
- Equipment, valve, and instrument registers for procurement accuracy
Electrical design services
- Full review process of P&IDs for electrical integration
- 3D source model for process electrical, with clash coordination
- Automation architecture, HMI coordination, panel design, and E&I scope
Stainless steel process services installed
- Water for injection (WFI), purified water, reverse osmosis water
- Compressed/process air, clean steam, CIP supply/return
- Nitrogen and carbon dioxide systems with automated controls
- Process waste, glycol supply/return, temperature control units
- Process vent/exhaust systems, environmental management system, and control panels
ASSDA Members Atlas Steels, Midway Metals, Prochem Pipeline Products, and Stirlings Performance Steels supplied a range of stainless steel materials for the project, while MME Surface Finishing provided electropolishing services.
The technical foundation underpinned the facility’s compliance with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) requirements and global GMP standards, ensuring quality, safety, and long-term reliability.
Award-winning stainless steel fabrication
The stainless steel expertise demonstrated on this project was recognised nationally, with Pure Piping named the 2024 winner of ASSDA’s Australian Industry Stainless Steel Fabricator Award in the Food, Beverage and Pharmaceutical category for its work on Moderna’s facility. This award highlights its leadership in stainless steel fabrication and installation for highly regulated industries where quality and reliability are paramount.
Pure Piping’s extensive experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing positioned them as the right partner for this pioneering project. Its ability to align Australian and American standards, while innovating improvements such as switching compressed air systems from copper to stainless steel for enhanced cleanliness, exemplifies the value of stainless steel in advancing health technology.
The opening of Moderna’s facility in 2024 marks a milestone not only in Australia’s biomedical capability but also in showcasing the indispensable role of stainless steel in safeguarding public health. Stainless steel fabrication continues to deliver the highest standards of purity, quality, and innovation required for life-saving pharmaceutical production.
This article was featured in Australian Stainless Magazine 83.