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What is a Cleanroom?
Short Answer:
A cleanroom is a controlled environment where the concentration of airborne particles is regulated to specified limits.
These rooms are crucial in various industries where even the smallest particles can compromise the quality or safety of products.
How do Cleanrooms Work?
Cleanrooms are designed to maintain extremely low levels of particulates such as dust, airborne organisms, or vaporised particles. Three essential features include Air filtration, environmental control and cleanroom garments.
Read more about this below.
1. Air Filtration
- HEPA and ULPA Filters: Cleanrooms use High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) and Ultra-Low Penetration Air (ULPA) filters to remove particles from the air. HEPA filters can capture particles as small as 0.3 microns with 99.97% efficiency, while ULPA filters can capture even smaller particles with 99.999% efficiency.
- Air Changes Per Hour: Cleanrooms have a high rate of air changes per hour, meaning the entire volume of air is replaced multiple times per hour to continuously remove contaminants.
- Airflow: Cleanrooms use unidirectional (laminar) or non-unidirectional (turbulent) airflow systems to constantly sweep away particles. Laminar airflow systems use a continuous stream of HEPA-filtered air, whereas turbulent airflow systems mix the air to dilute contamination.
- Pressure Control: Cleanrooms are maintained at a higher pressure than the surrounding environment to prevent the ingress of contaminated air. Airlocks and pressure differentials between rooms of different cleanliness levels are used to control particle contamination.
2. Environmental Control
- Temperature and Humidity: Precise control over temperature and humidity is necessary to prevent condensation, static electricity, and microbial growth, all of which can affect product quality.
3. Cleanroom Garments
- Personnel must wear specialised clothing, including gowns, gloves, masks, and shoe covers, to minimize the release of particles from their bodies and clothing.
What industries use cleanrooms?
Cleanrooms are utilised in various industries where even minute levels of contamination can have significant consequences. The following summarises industries that use cleanrooms, their purpose and applications.
Pharmaceuticals
- Purpose: To ensure sterile production environments for medications and vaccines.
- Applications: Manufacturing of sterile drug products, compounding pharmacies, and research laboratories.
Biotechnology
- Purpose: To prevent biological contamination and maintain aseptic conditions.
- Applications: Production of biological products, genetic research, and cell culture labs.
Aerospace and Defence
- Purpose: To ensure the cleanliness of components and systems that will operate in space or other controlled environments.
- Applications: Assembly and testing of satellites, aircraft systems, and sensitive defence equipment.
Medical Devices
- Purpose: To prevent contamination of devices that will be used in or on the human body.
- Applications: Production of pacemakers, surgical instruments, and implantable devices.
Automotive
- Purpose: To ensure the cleanliness of sensitive automotive components.
- Applications: Production of high-precision parts like airbags, sensors, and fuel injectors.
Research and Development
- Purpose: To maintain controlled environments for experiments that require low contamination levels.
- Applications: Nanotechnology research, material science, and biomedical research.
Precision Engineering
- Purpose: To ensure that ultra-precise measurements and products are not affected by particulate matter.
- Applications: Manufacturing of precision instruments and micro-mechanical parts.
Healthcare
- Purpose: To create a clean, aseptic environment, reducing the risk of infection and contamination.
- Applications: Treatment Rooms, Day Case Theatre, Operating Theatre
Airology offers a range of cleanrooms and laboratories
Every cleanroom application has specific requirements, which we factor into our bespoke cleanroom designs and installations. For universities, research facilities, hospitals, and private-sector manufacturing, cleanrooms can be crucial to success. As technology develops, we stay abreast of new methods, supporting clients to upgrade existing cleanrooms.
7 key decisions when creating a cleanroom environment
1. Decide how it’s to be used
2. Decide how it should be classified
3. Decide on the right environment
4. Decide what size it should be
5. Decide how impurities will be extracted or filtered
6. Decide on the right lighting condition
7. Decide how secure your facility needs to be