STORZ MEDICAL expands in Tägerwilen
The medical technology company STORZ MEDICAL AG is expanding its premises at its headquarters in Tägerwilen, Switzerland. Therefore, both a new warehouse building and an administration building are being constructed there.
The globally successful manufacturer of shock wave equipment continues to grow, making an expansion necessary. STORZ MEDICAL currently employs 259 people worldwide, including 176 at its site in Tägerwilen.
As a consequence of this growth, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new buildings took place on 21 April. Among others, STORZ MEDICAL owner Gudrun Heine, STORZ MEDICAL managing director Dr Gerold Heine, as well as Manuel Merk (CFO), Filip Schönbeck (CCO), Dr Rafael Storz (CTO) and Alexander Rust as STORZ MEDICAL’s client representative were on site. The municipality of Tägerwilen was represented, among others, by Markus Ellenbroek, president of the municipality. Also present were representatives of the construction companies, including architect Günter Hermann from Stuttgart and Methabau site manager Michael Scheiwiller from Amriswil, as well as Jochen Vöhringer, project manager at Methabau.
All of STORZ MEDICAL’s new buildings will be of an extremely high standard with aesthetically high-quality architecture in a timeless design. As before, the outer skin of the new modern office building will be made entirely of glass. Like the existing building, the office building will consist of three storeys with a total floor area of 2390 square metres. The adjoining new warehouse building will measure approximately 30,000 m3 with a total floor area of 3848 square metres.
The site on which the company headquarters near Lake Constance was built in 2006 covers 35,000 square metres (3.56 ha). Previously, the premises in the neighbouring town of Kreuzlingen had become too constricted. This is where STORZ MEDICAL was founded in 1987.
The company is a prime example of true innovation. Anyone who mentions shock wave therapy today means STORZ MEDICAL first and foremost. The medical device manufacturer produces and distributes globally, for example, the well-known MODULITH® series. These are non-invasive kidney stone disintegrators, known in technical jargon as lithotripters.
STORZ MEDICAL has sold over 2000 of these devices to hospitals worldwide. In addition, almost 50,000 shock wave devices have been sold in over 130 countries in the fields of orthopaedics, urology, dermatology, neurology, cardiology or veterinary medicine.
Sustainability in the product line is also a top priority for STORZ MEDICAL in constructing the building:
The heating and other hot water treatment are provided entirely by a generously dimensioned geothermal heat pump. This, in turn, is largely powered by self-generated self-generated photovoltaic electricity.
Operation of the heat pump can be switched to cooling in summer, so that the offices can be cooled without conventional air conditioning.
The new photovoltaic system is designed to be large enough to ensure the company’s electrical autonomy to a large extent, even in winter.
As part of its sustainability strategy, STORZ MEDICAL will add approximately 1,600 PV modules to the existing 648 modules. The capacity of the existing PV system will thus be increased by at least 247%.
This will leave STORZ MEDICAL just under 1 megawatt peak (MWp) total output. MWp refers to the maximum electrical output of a solar plant at optimum solar irradiation.
The company will generate a total of approximately 1000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity per year. According to current estimates, about 700,000 kWh of this will be fed into the local AC grid. One MWh corresponds to 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh). The average annual consumption of a 4-person household is about 4,500 kWh. This means that STORZ MEDICAL provides electricity for at least 155 households of this size.
STORZ MEDICAL is thus likely to be one of the largest private producers of sustainable energy in the canton of Thurgau.
The architectural firm Günter Hermann Architekten from Stuttgart, which had already planned the first STORZ MEDICAL buildings in Tägerwilen in 2006, was responsible for the project development, the building application as well as its approval and handed over further work including complete implementation planning to the sole contractor METHABAU from Amriswil.
Flumgeo AG from St. Gallen is responsible for the geotechnical engineering. The surveying work is being carried out by Wällig AG Ingenieure from Kreuzlingen. Planimpuls AG, also from Kreuzlingen, is responsible for drainage planning. Gruner AG, from its location in St. Gallen, is in charge of structural planning, while the Zurich location is responsible for fire protection planning.
