Inside the facility fabrication factory

The new Quantifoil production facility is prefabricated. This fast and efficient technique - with construction underway offsite while the ground was prepared at Quantifoil - means that we will be able to start expanding grid production sooner. With the foundations quickly taking shape, we were excited to visit the factory where our new building is being constructed. It was truly fascinating to see inside this huge area where whole buildings are built and moved around like a doll's house in your workshop at home. And at the end of the line, we were delighted to be able to see complete sections, ready and waiting to be shipped to Quantifoil to become our new facility. You can take the tour with us in the slide-show below, and see parts of the new Quantifoil building yourself for the first time!

This may look like an ordinary pile of beams but keep scrolling to see them create something extraordinary.

Just like when building Ikea shelves, it is important to consult the plans and make sure you have the correct parts first!

Beams laid out in the workshop and beam beginning to work in the background

Then lay everything out ready, so you have each part to hand when it's required.

Image looking down the length of a section of building

Now you can start putting your building together - it doesn't take long for something interesting to take shape!

Metal frameworks for several building sections

And repeat for each section of the building. We're going to need quite a lot of these!

offsite - Moving along the production line -sized

Time to move all the completed sections on to the next stage in the process.

A metal framework on it's own is definitely not enough - we're going to need ceilings because rain is definitely not good for grids (or the people making them!)

And walls to stop the wind blowing away all those lovely Quantifoils and UltrAuFoils (and more importantly, so that nobody freezes to death!)

One building section being moved past another

But it doesn't take long for walls and ceilings to be added, and very soon the sections are on the move again.

To the end of the line, where they wait to be taken to Quantifoil and turned into our new facility!

With all the sections ready to go, it was time to ship them to Quantifoil and see our new facility become a reality. Don't miss our next blog in 2 weeks' time: "The One Where the Building Appeared".

Inside the facility fabrication factory

If you've missed the story so far, catch up on previous episodes here: