Why Use A Cleanroom?

A cleanroom (or modular cleanroom) is a controlled environment where pollutants like dust, airborne microbes, and aerosol particles are filtered out to produce a clean environment. Typically, cleanrooms are used for manufacturing products in industries where specified levels of hygiene are necessary, like the pharma, medical devices and electronic sectors.

Printing Packaging Cleanroom are categorised into different levels of contamination depending on the amount of particles allowed in the space per cubic meter. There’re also other important control variables such as humidity, temperature and air flow.

In summary, a Cleanroom’s core purpose is to control the introduction, generation and retention of particles inside the room.

Why use a Cleanroom?

Reason 1: Legal Responsibilities

Using a cleanroom is not just an aspiration but a must for any company that wants to improve quality control and guarantee safety in the final assembly of critical parts. For something like medical devices, this is absolutely critical. In this sector and in others like pharma, there are many different types of healthcare standards and approvals needed including USP Class V1, FDA and more. And a key component in meeting many of these legal obligations often includes the use of Cleanrooms during the manufacturing process.

Reason 2: Keep up with advanced Technology

As tech evolves, many products and their components are getting smaller and more complex (think of a smartphone circuit board, for example). As this happens, the potential negative impact and the  risk of  contamination in manufacturing becomes higher. So as the stakes increase and part sizes decrease, the need to prevent contamination becomes more pressing.

Reason 3: People

Yes we (human beings) are one of the main reasons why Cleanrooms are necessary. Just by simply being in a room, we are releasing particles into the air. These are mostly human skin cells that naturally shed. And the more we move the more we ‘shed’. For this reason fast movements such as running or walking fast are typically prohibited. However until we are all replaced by robots, a development which is on the horizon in manufacturing, highly trained and specialised people are still essential in areas such as injection moulding. So people need to be physically in the manufacturing facility to carry out the job.

To counteract the pollutants that workers generate, organisations like Key Plastics who offer  Cleanroom manufacturing understand that it is imperative that people working in the room are following the correct protocol.

2 main considerations include:

1. Covering people with protective gowns and equipment to prevent the shedding of microorganisms and

2. Putting a localised protection on a given product or part to minimise contact

Reason 4: Waste Reduction

When using a Cleanroom –the everyday contaminants that often happen in the manufacturing process disappear. The thoroughness of Cleanroom procedures and processes reduces the likelihood of poor production and wasted product, minimising overall waste.

Reason 5: Savings

This is really a combination of the points outlined earlier. With less waste and higher quality control (because the tailored environment allows for it) deploying Cleanroom manufacturing is fundamentally going to save on spend in the long-term.

If you are interested in cleanrooms, please get in touch with us.