Link Magazine: MINIATURIZATION DRIVES DEMAND FOR CLEANROOMS

Source: LINK magazine 

Because accuracies, resolutions and contamination risks are constantly increasing, the demand for cleanrooms is increasing rapidly. Clean working, clean assembly, clean packaging and clean delivery are the standards that are mainly dictated by demanding customers. In response to this, more and more cleanrooms and flow cabinets are appearing at OEMs and suppliers. Given the differences in the required cleanliness class and the demand for lower energy consumption, these are increasingly modular solutions that are flexible and can be adapted to current and future use. A good example of this are the modular cleanrooms and integrated flow cabinets installed by ProCleanroom at Bronkhorst High-Tech in Ruurlo.

This modular system makes it possible for our five rooms to operate independently of each other’, says Harold Veldkamp about the new cleanroom at Bronkhorst High-Tech. Photo: Bronkhorst

Written by Frank senteur

We have been selling cleanrooms and flow cabinets since 2009 and have been designing and producing them ourselves since 2016,’ says Niels Ferguson, Managing Director of ProCleanroom in Valkenswaard. The history of the company goes back to 1997, when Ferguson’s father started a technical engineering company. “We now have a broad portfolio of products and services, and we design, produce and install our solutions with a team of 22 permanent employees. We are also accredited to carry out validations according to the ISO 14644-1/3 standard. Just say the MOT for cleanrooms.’

Cleanrooms used to be mostly fixed spaces that were integrally conditioned in accordance with a certain ISO class on the basis of the required degree of cleanliness. “That offered little flexibility and unnecessarily high operational and energy costs,” says Ferguson. In the right configuration, such cleanrooms certainly offer a suitable solution for applications where a strict temperature and humidity regime is required. However, Ferguson sees a clear trend towards modular cleanrooms, consisting of several rooms with different cleanliness classes. “These areas are often expanded with integrated flow cabinets to achieve the most critical conditions locally and also to be able to work flexibly,” he says.

The cleanrooms move along with future changing requirements and wishes. They are even completely movable, but above all flexible in terms of layout and specification. “With flow cabinets you can improve the cleanliness in certain places by a factor of 1,000, for example. You can then use a lower cleanliness class in the general area, which saves you overall on operational and energy costs.’ The use of energy-efficient variable speed DC motors for the ventilation systems, which account for a significant part of the costs, also helps.

‘THE CLEANROOMS MOVE WITH CHANGING REQUIREMENTS AND WISHES’

To meet the technical specifications, ProCleanroom has divided the 120 square meter space at Bronkhorst into five modular ISO class 7 cleanroom cells of 24 square meters each. These have an internal height of 2.7 m, which gives a spacious feeling. All cleanroom areas have their own light control, sliding door and feed-throughs for utilities and are also equipped with their own laminar flow unit, with an ISO class 5 classification. More than thirty recessed LED panels provide good lighting.

“Our production is divided into cells with two to three employees. We then looked at what we needed to achieve the required ISO class.’ The hall, or the surrounding environment, achieves ISO-7, while the cleanrooms placed in it achieve ISO-6 in operation. “With this concept we have a very nice combination of overall cleanliness in the surrounding space and a higher cleanliness in the cells with minimal energy costs. You can always move the cleanroom modules very easily later on.’ The concept is so modular that such a cleanroom can be operational elsewhere in no time. “Upgrading is also fast and only requires an adjustment of the filter systems.”

Full service supplier
Ferguson concludes: “As a total supplier of cleanroom solutions, we not only provide the engineering and realization of the cleanrooms themselves, but customers can also come to us for the periodic ISO validation, the complete equipment and the consumables. Think of tables, transfer benches, cupboards, UV lamps for particle inspection, cleaning products such as IPA, clothing, cleanroom cloths, et cetera. We offer more than two thousand products through our webshop and many of them are delivered directly from stock. In this way we can completely unburden our customers.’

• www.procleanroom.com
• www.bronkhorst.com
• shop.procleanroom.com