Global Enviro Group Companies

 

Typically used in manufacturing of scientific research, Pharmaceutical manufacturing & Bulk drug manufacturing industry.   a clean room is a controlled environment that has a low level of pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles, and chemical vapours. To be exact, a clean room has a controlled level of contamination that is specified by the number of particles per cubic meter at a specified particle size. The ambient air outside in a typical city environment contains 35,000,000 particles per cubic meter, 0.5 mm and larger in diameter, corresponding to an ISO 9 clean room which is at the lowest level of clean room standards.

 

 

Cleanroom Overview:

 

Clean rooms are used in practically every industry where small particles can adversely affect the manufacturing process. They vary in size and complexity, and are used extensively in industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotech, medical device and life sciences, as well as critical process manufacturing common in aerospace, optics, military and Department of Energy.

A clean room is any given contained space where provisions are made to reduce particulate contamination and control other environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity and pressure. The key component is the High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter that is used to trap particles that are 0.3 micron and larger in size. All of the air delivered to a clean room passes through HEPA filters, and in some cases where stringent cleanliness performance is necessary, Ultra Low Particulate Air (ULPA) filters are used.

 

 

Clean room Air Flow Principles:

 

Clean rooms maintain particulate-free air through the use of either HEPA or ULPA filters employing laminar or turbulent air flow principles. Laminar, or unidirectional, air flow systems direct filtered air downward in a constant stream. Laminar air flow systems are typically employed across 100% of the ceiling to maintain constant, unidirectional flow. Laminar flow criteria is generally stated in portable work stations (LF hoods), and is mandated in ISO-1 through ISO-4 classified clean rooms.

Proper clean room design encompasses the entire air distribution system, including provisions for adequate, downstream air returns. In vertical flow rooms, this means the use of low wall air returns around the perimeter of the zone. In horizontal flow applications, it requires the use of air returns at the downstream boundary of the process. The use of ceiling mounted air returns is contradictory to proper cleanroom system design.

 

 

Cleanroom Classifications:

 

Cleanrooms are classified by how clean the air is. In Federal Standard 209 (A to D) of the USA, the number of particles equal to and greater than 0.5mm is measured in one cubic foot of air, and this count is used to classify the clean room. The newer standard is TC 209 from the International Standards Organization. Both standards classify a clean room by the number of particles found in the laboratory's air. The clean room classification standards FS 209E and ISO 14644-1 require specific particle count measurements and calculations to classify the cleanliness level of a clean room or clean area.

Clean rooms are classified according to the number and size of particles permitted per volume of air. Large numbers like "class 100" or "class 1000" refer to FED_STD-209E, and denote the number of particles of size 0.5 mm or larger permitted per cubic foot of air. The standard also allows interpolation, so it is possible to describe e.g. "class 2000."

Small numbers refer to ISO 14644-1 standards, which specify the decimal logarithm of the number of particles 0.1 µm or larger permitted per cubic metre of air. So, for example, an ISO class 5 clean room has at most 105 = 100,000 particles per m³.

Both FS 209E and ISO 14644-1 assume log-log relationships between particle size and particle concentration. For that reason, there is no such thing as zero particle concentration. Ordinary room air is approximately class 1,000,000 or ISO 9.