Carten Controls – Evolving to Revolutionise the Pharmaceuticals Sector

Since opening at the Waterford site on the Northern Extension of the IDA Industrial Estate in 1981 as a ‘low purity’ brass valve manufacturer, Carten Controls has strived to provide state of the art manufacturing to the semi-conductor bulk gas transfer market. This was realised over time with a transition to high and ultra-high purity stainless steel product and ongoing site investment in modern manufacturing facilities. In the early 2010’s Carten introduced a manufacturing facility for simple and complex integrated flow solutions including gas sticks, panels, valve-manifold boxes and complex gas mixing systems. In the late 2010’s Carten entered the pharmaceutical market with the release of the BNW valve and block series. This is a market leading, patented, high performance weir diaphragm valve.

While its primary usage is within fixed, stainless steel, systems the, ASME BPE compliant, BNW series is the first demonstration of Carten’s commitment to open architecture principles within the pharmaceutical sector and is compatible with sensing and control solutions from a variety of third-parties while offering multiple integration solutions on the customer site. To ensure the highest standard of cleanliness these valves are assembled, tested, and packaged in our modern, energy efficient, ISO 4 clean room. This facility allows no particles that are 10 times smaller than a grain of sand within the clean space and ensures Carten is prepared to serve industry capacity and technology demand for the next 25 years.

For the next evolution of this valve series Carten are working closely with Walton Institute at South East Technological University (SETU) to develop a real time condition monitoring system to enable algorithmic predictive maintenance. This collaborative project combines skills in design, manufacturing, and sensing at Carten with knowledge of Artificial Intelligence application, sensor signal conditioning, and cloud solutions at Walton Institute.

The body of research undertaken by ICS Technology Gateway at Walton Institute and part funded by an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership Program will revolutionise the maintenance functions within traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing though the reduction in the need for specified annual maintenance while giving the operations and maintenance teams the tools they need to ensure the safety and integrity of each batch produced. With batch values typical in the millions of euros the importance of this cannot be understated. This new technology platform will reduce ongoing operating expenses for users through removing interventions at valves that do not require maintenance and optimising maintenance intervals across the install base. In the long term this may shorten or remove shutdown periods that are typical today.

In 2017 Carten introduced a unique, versatile pinch valve to the market. This valve was built around the principles of high performance, broad compatibility, and versatility; offering users the chance to use multiple line sizes with a single valve. In 2022 this was updated with the release of the Omnia range of actuators. These continue the open architecture design principles established as core values of Carten’s bio-pharmaceutical range while offering performance and usability advancements on the previous generation. The Omnia range also introduced the, one of a kind, mini-pinch valve to small volume, low flow applications. The Omnia mini-pinch valve enables the efficient production of today’s most advanced cell and gene therapies and is crucial in the furthering of cancer and rare disease treatments.

In 2025 Carten is expanding the Omnia range to include two new product lines. The first of these is a new “pinch-block” model which is designed to offer significant improvement in batch-to-batch times for bio-pharmaceutical manufacturers with simplified installation and reduced risk to batch integrity through removal of common connection points. The pinch block complements and leverages the technology already released with Carten’s Omnia Actuators while reducing space requirements by 30% hold up volume by up to 50% compared to conventional installations.

The second addition to the Omnia range in 2025 is the release of standard and custom integrated systems. These integrated systems use the well-known, high performance, Omnia Actuator technology and adds a layer of programmable control hardware to produce flexible automated solutions for the bio-pharmaceutical industry. While these integrated systems are primarily used as fluid transfer modules Carten can customise a system to meet user requirements and act as a single point of contact for the entire project to produce a solution with integrated valves, control electronics, and flow kit.

 

The relevance of ASME BPE standards in Carten’s operations cannot be overstated. The ASME BPE (Bioprocessing Equipment) standards provide comprehensive guidelines for the design and construction of equipment used in the biopharmaceutical industry, ensuring high levels of purity and bioburden control. These standards cover materials, design, fabrication, inspections, testing, and certification. By adhering to ASME BPE standards, Carten ensures that its products meet the stringent requirements of the biopharmaceutical industry, enhancing product purity and safety while complying with regulatory standards.

Carten’s adherence to these high standards and innovative pipeline of solutions for the bio-pharmaceutical industry saw recognition in late 2024 with the prestigious award of Life Sciences Exporter of the Year from the Export Industry Awards facilitated by the Irish Exporters Association.

Carten takes pride in the ability to offer engineer to order products which are fully customised to suit a user’s needs and whether it is the mixing of highly toxic and explosive gases in semiconductor, or the fluid transfer of life-saving therapeutic biologics for injection into the human body in bioprocessing, Carten product is marketed, researched, designed, validated, and manufactured at our site in Waterford. Carten proudly works with our sub-suppliers of machined components across Ireland and works to ensure we source as much product within Ireland as possible – both to reduce the impact of global supply chain logistics on the environment and to positively contribute to the Irish economy through supporting local employment of highly skilled workers.