For pharmaceutical companies, these chambers mean commerce: Environmental Specialties quietly grows to national prominence building insulated custom chambers to further drug research.

• Position: Company overview

North Carolina is rightfully proud of its expanding capability to attract biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms, both established and start-ups. But the state also is home to firms that support those industries, often nationally and often in critical ways. Environmental Specialties, based in Raleigh, is an example of one such firm.

Founded in the 1970s, Environmental Specialties has evolved to become a national leader in the supply of custom and high-quality environmental chambers. In 2001, Environmental Specialties was purchased by Luwa Inc., an air engineering and construction firm with offices throughout the United States and Mexico. This proved to be the catalyst needed to enable Environmental Specialties to grow even more.

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The company, based 20 minutes from the Research Triangle Park, specializes in the design and manufacture of controlled environmental chambers--modular insulated rooms in which temperature and humidity are controlled, often over extreme ranges under precise parameters. Environmental Specialties is the choice of pharmaceutical and biotech firms nationally, and frequently internationally, for custom chamber applications. For example, the company has been a pioneer in the field of bulk, ultralow temperature (less than minus 70 C) storage. These systems, used by large drug makers, offer greater storage space at lower operating costs than competing unitary reach-in chambers. The systems are easily maintained and feature redundant refrigeration and liquid nitrogen back up.

"We saw a growing need and interest for this type of system," says Ed Frantz, national sales director, "and we actually prototyped this design in our facility for a year before going to market. It took time to prove the worth of this system compared with the more conservative approach of staying with smaller reach-in freezers. Many of our customers have seen the value of bulk storage, both in increased space to store product and in lowered operating costs, including validation and maintenance."

The company does not limit itself to one area of innovation. Environmental Specialties also works with customers to create a hybrid bulk-storage solution combining reach-in cabinets supported by common refrigeration skids, typically redundant. These projects can be complex. "For example," Frantz says, "we partnered with a prominent robotics firm to produce a chamber vault that operated at minus 20 C that included more than thirty reach-in...