What Are Cleanrooms? A Basic Introduction
A cleanroom, sometimes referred to as a cleanroom or a clean-room, is a controlled environment, usually used for the manufacturing of products or the testing of laboratory procedures. The point to cleanroom services is to control the concentration of airborne particles and sub-atomic contamination to a specific limit.
Controlling contamination in a cleanroom comes down to controlling the total environment of the entire room. Temperature, air flow, pressurization, humidity and filtration all need to be carefully controlled in a cleanroom. Services within and around the room need to be strictly regulated. Cleanrooms can often be found within the pharmaceutical, electronic, medical device and research industries.
Once a cleanroom has been created, it has to be maintained at rigorously high standards. Even a minuscule particle – 300 times smaller in diameter than a human hair – can cause a potential disaster within a clean-room. Professional cleanroom services and products are required to continue to operate the room at professional standards.
There are literally dozens of potential contaminants that can enter a cleanroom and compromise the environment. Most contaminants stem from the people working within the cleanroom and the products being manufactured within it. Some of the most common include:• Air conditioning or filtration debris
- Skin cells and bodily oils
- Cosmetics and perfumes
- Hair
- Lint
- Cleaning chemicals