Before we can truly decide whether a specific product or service is necessary (for us or our business), it is imperative that we first understand what it is and what it does. And then, of course, we will be able to accurately determine how we (or our business) can benefit from it. Suffice it to say that if you happen to be reading this post then you, at the very least, understand that a cleanroom is not necessarily just “a room that is very clean”.
The concept of a cleanroom can be quite complex, however, quite simply put, a cleanroom is a space where air quality is monitored and controlled to maintain the pristine hygienic conditions required to manufacture pharmaceutical, electronic, and healthcare products. These rigorous standards of cleanliness call for extensive filtering and high fresh air rates, as well as meticulous temperature and humidity control. These factors combined increase energy use, so creating a pressure differential between the cleanroom and its surrounding area offers protection from external ambient air entering and contaminating the space.
Here’s a fun fact: the Roman military hospitals of the first century were among the very first industries that tried to control the air in the area where patients were located. `Many centuries later, Florence Nightingale would trailblaze this movement by insisting on having meticulously clean, well-ventilated hospital rooms, and consequently save thousands of lives. However, surgeons Joseph Lister, William Keen and Gustav Neuber have jointly pioneered the use of disinfectants and the use of sterile surgical equipment.
In the present-day, cleanrooms have been improved to include:
- Pharmaceuticals/Biotechnology: in the preparation of pharmaceutical, biological, and medical products, a clean environment is necessary to limit the viable and non-viable particles that could affect a product’s sterility.
- Microelectronics/Semiconductors: feature sizes are smaller than many molecules, and controlling the concentration of particles tests the limits of cleanroom technology.
- Flat Panel Display (FPD): FPD factories are among the world’s largest cleanrooms, at around 200,000㎡.
- Aerospace: cleanrooms were initially construct for aerospace applications such as manufacturing and assembling gyroscopes, precision ball bearings, satellites, and aerospace electronics.
- Hospitals: the ability to restrict infection during surgeries spearheaded early contamination control techniques.
- Miscellaneous Application: cleanrooms are commonly used in food processing and packaging, microelectronics, and nanotechnology, in the manufacturing of medical devices, automotive paint booths, and crystal optic/laser industries, as well as in advanced materials research.
It is important to emphasise that designing a cleanroom reaches far beyond merely controlling the particle concentration within the space. As a matter of fact, it is sometimes necessary to control additional factors like air temperature and humidity, Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), molecular and gaseous contamination, airflow patterns, air pressure, and sound and vibration.
A well-designed cleanroom should maintain effective contamination control whilst still upholding the essential levels of reliability, productivity, installation, and operating costs. Hence, cleanrooms are built in an enclosed space that allows for the environmental control of particulates, temperatures, humidity, air pressure, airflow patterns, air motion, vibration, noise, viable organisms, and lighting.
Cleanrooms are also used in advanced manufacturing, where contamination is controlled to the manufacturing process as well as in medical operations, where limiting the spread of infection is crucial. Contamination can be either viable (in the case of bacteria, microbes or viruses) or it can be present in the form of non-viable particles (in the case of metals, organic and inorganic compounds, pollution, or dust). A space can be easily contaminated by people, materials and equipment, or additional contaminants found outside of the space.
Hospitals made the earliest attempts to control ventilation in spaces where patients were kept. These early hospitals comprised spacious, open halls that were well heated and ventilated. Gustave Neuber went on to create a surgical suite comprised of non-porous surfaces, glass and metal fixtures, and in-room sterilisation equipment. These innovations guided those involved with contamination control in their precision manufacturing operations.
A consequence of contamination in the manufacturing process is defective and unfit products. Though cleaning was the obvious solution, it is a laborious process and proved an unproductive way to keep particles out of the space. Precision manufacturers in watch making and ball bearing were among the first to make use of contamination control techniques, as well as to identify the need for clean materials and workstations.
Much like with the development of surgery suites, manufacturers identified a need for a special room in which contamination could be controlled. Although continual cleaning was effective, it slowed things down. Eventually, precision military product manufactures began to call for “ultra clean” rooms and “white” rooms (cleanrooms). Western Electric answered that call in 1955 by establishing a “dust-free” room – what is widely believed to be the first-ever production cleanroom.
There have been other claims that the Olmsted Air Force Base in Pennsylvania or the U.S. Navy’s North Island Air Station in San Diego housed the first installations. However, it really doesn’t matter which of those cleanroom installations came first – they are certainly not the last.
