What Is a Cleanroom?

Due to the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, the public has much more interest in learning how to control the concentration of airborne particles. Technical Air Products has been providing clean air solutions to customers from a wide variety of industries for over 25 years. If you are curious about what a cleanroom is and how workers protect a cleanroom from contamination, read on. 

What Is a Cleanroom? 

A cleanroom is a controlled environment that limits the concentration of airborne particles to specification. Cleanrooms can be used for a variety of reasons, but are most often required to manufacture certain products or for laboratory testing within the research, electronics, medical, and pharmaceutical industries. 

There are many factors that can be controlled in order to provide a clean environment within a cleanroom. These include: 

• Air flow
• Pressurization
• Filtration
• Temperature
• Humidity

Types of Cleanrooms

There are three types of cleanrooms: softwall, rigidwall, and hardwall cleanrooms. Hardwall cleanrooms have hard, demountable walls designed to fully enclose the modular cleanroom. They are very effective at controlling humidity and temperature, but they’re a far more expensive choice and cannot as easily be broken down and reassembled elsewhere, limiting their flexibility.

Softwall and rigidwall cleanrooms are cost effective modular structures that offer increased flexibility of use, but vary in their robustness and durability. Softwall cleanrooms are economical and portable. Due to our proprietary LogiClean® modular design, Technical Air Products’ softwall cleanrooms can be assembled or disassembled using only a screwdriver and two wrenches. Our rigidwall cleanrooms are a good choice for businesses looking to expand their capabilities over time for a less costly initial cleanroom investment. Both offer the high performance standards our customers have come to expect from us. 

How Do You Maintain a Cleanroom Environment? 

Setting up or installing a cleanroom correctly is only the first part of providing air cleanliness to specification. The space must also be maintained over time which requires strict adherence to a cleaning protocol with standard operating procedures. Even the most miniscule particles can cause disaster within a cleanroom. Worldwide we have been concerned about viruses in 2020, but the most common types of contamination also include skin particles, bodily oils, hair, lint, dust, fibers, grease, fungi, metals, perfumes and cosmetics, and cleaning chemicals. These enter the cleanroom via the people who work in it as well as from tools, fluids, equipment, and other objects introduced to, used, or manufactured within the space. 

For most companies, maintaining the requisite air quality within their environment requires the assistance of professional cleanroom services and products. Technical Air Products manufactures modular cleanrooms, cleanroom accessories, and other clean air products. We can provide air quality to specification and have the ability to reduce air contamination down to essentially nothing.

Whether your cleanroom requirements are COVID-19 related or not, we can provide the solution you need. Contact us today for more information.