Cleanroom Terminology: BioSafety Hoods & Cabinets

Cleanroom Terminology: BioSafety Hoods & Cabinets

by | Oct 2, 2019 | Cleanroom Terminology

Anyone in quality assurance or testing who works in or has to design a cleanroom knows how confusing the terminology around cleanrooms can be. To demystify some of the cleanroom design processes, here is an explanation of two potentially confusing terms: biosafety hoods and biosafety cabinets.

What is a biosafety hood?

A biosafety hood is generally known as a fume hood. The purpose of a fume hood is to isolate fumes from materials that may be hazardous and filter those fumes out of your cleanroom space. An exhaust fan at the top of the cleanroom building pulls air, fumes, and airborne contaminants out of the fume hood and exhausts outside of the building.

What is biosafety cabinetry?

Biosafety cabinetry works very similarly to biosafety fume hoods. Biosafety cabinetry uses laminar airflow to filter airborne fumes and contaminants away from the cabinet area, which like a fume hood can be used as a work surface or storage area.

What are the classifications?

There are three classes of biological safety cabinets, Class I, Class II, and Class III. The classification determines the level of protection. Class I protects the user and the surrounding environment, but does not protect the sample. Class II and Class III protect the user, sample, and surrounding environment. Class II is divided into four subcategories, A1, A2, B1, and B2, based on exhaust system and minimum airflow. Class III is the highest level of protection and control. Class III cabinets are also known as “glove boxes” and are completely gas-tight with a double-door autoclave or dunk tank. 

 

Protection

User

Environment

Sample

Class I

Yes

Yes

No

Class II

Yes

Yes

Yes

Class III

Yes—highest 

Yes—highest 

Yes—highest 

 

Special considerations

If your cleanroom requires work with dangerous, hazardous, or toxic substances with airborne contaminants or fumes, your cleanroom likely requires some kind of biosafety cabinetry or hood. The level of protection necessary for your specific application, whether your application requires Class I, Class II, or Class III cabinetry, will depend on the specific operations and substances used in your cleanroom. 

 

Looking for a cleanroom that incorporates biosafety cabinetry? Angstrom Technology can design a cleanroom to accommodate any kind of cabinetry or other equipment necessary for your application.

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Do You Need A Soundproof Cleanroom?

Do You Need A Soundproof Cleanroom?

by | Sep 17, 2019 | Cleanroom Design, Manufacturing Cleanrooms

A cleanroom can be designed to meet the needs of almost any application with any requirements, from controlling static and humidity to even controlling sound. You probably know whether your application requires control for things like humidity and static, but what about sound. Do you need a soundproof cleanroom? Here are some conditions where you might.

Loud Manufacturing Environments

If your facility is a manufacturing environment that requires protective hearing equipment like earplugs ear, soundproofing your cleanroom is a good idea, especially if hearing protection isn’t necessary for your cleanroom processes. Hearing protection might even hinder those processes, as foam from earplugs and earmuffs can hold and shed particles.

If your cleanroom contains the loud equipment and the rest of your processes outside the cleanroom don’t require hearing protection, it can be worthwhile to soundproof your cleanroom so that hearing protection is only required inside. This can greatly reduce hearing-related injuries to your personnel and reduce the cost of hearing protection for your company.

Loud Equipment Containment

If you have a piece of equipment or pieces of equipment that are particularly loud, rather than creating a soundproof cleanroom, a more efficient solution might be creating a soundproof containment room for that equipment. A modular soundproof room can be created around a loud piece of equipment. The benefit to this is reduced noise and need for ear protection in your facility. Additionally, modular containment rooms can be freestanding or can incorporate your existing structure, so no matter where a piece of equipment is housed, it can be soundproofed.

Sensitive Processes

If your cleanroom operation is a particularly sensitive process, a soundproof cleanroom may also be beneficial. Sound is vibration, and delicate operations may be affected by loud noises and strong vibrations, which a soundproof cleanroom can reduce.

Proprietary Information

If your cleanroom operations are top secret or deal with proprietary information which should not leave the walls of the cleanroom, a soundproof cleanroom can also prevent the unplanned and unwanted spread of information by containing sound within the cleanroom.

 

Angstrom Technology’s modular cleanrooms and in-plantinplant buildings can be customized to control sound, if your application requires. Get in touch with one of our design engineers to discuss your project.

 

Cleanroom Terminology: Air Showers

Cleanroom Terminology: Air Showers

by | Sep 3, 2019 | Air Showers

Early in the cleanroom design process, all of the cleanroom terminology and jargon can be confusing, especially when designing a controlled environment is a complex process with many factors to take into account. Here’s an explainer on one of those terms, air showers, that may help you determine whether your cleanroom requires an air shower.

What are air showers?

Air showers are enclosed spaces that use high-velocity air jets to remove contaminants from people and items entering the controlled environment. They are placed at all entrances to the cleanroom and are connected to a HEPA or ULPA filtration system. Air showers can be used to prevent contaminants from entering the cleanroom, but they can also be used to remove contaminants from people and objects exiting a quarantine or other controlled environment to prevent cross contamination.

Air showers are particularly useful for cleanrooms requiring a high level of control, such as ISO Classes 1-5. Industries that commonly use air showers include pharmaceuticals, biotech, hospitals, aerospace, and semiconductor manufacturing.

Air Shower Specifics

All air showers function in the same way—air blows onto the person or object in the air shower, blowing loose contaminants off before the person or object enters the cleanroom space. The differences are really in size, materials, and filtration system.

Size

The size of your air shower will depend on what needs to pass through it. If only people will be passing through your air shower, then you won’t need a large one (depending on the number of people). However, if carts with product need to enter your cleanroom, your air shower will need to accommodate the person pushing the cart as well as the cart.

Materials

Air showers are generally constructed from either steel, aluminum, stainless steel, or plastics. The material used may depend on your budget as well as the application and requirements of the air shower.

Filtration system

Air showers can use HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters or ULPA (ultra-low particulate air) filters, depending on your needs. HEPA filters remove particles greater than or equal to 0.3 µm with 99.99 percent efficiency; ULPA filters remove particles greater than or equal to 0.12 µm with 99.9995 percent efficiency.

Angstrom Technology designs cleanrooms that can incorporate a variety of design features, including air showers. Talk to an engineer today to get started designing your cleanroom.

 

What Is An Inplant Building?

What Is An Inplant Building?

by | Aug 19, 2019 | Cleanrooms

The new trend in industrial and commercial building is inplant buildings. While this may seem like just another trend, there are many reasons why an inplant building might be useful in your factory or industrial application. What are inplant buildings, and what are their benefits? 

What is an inplant building?

Inplant are essentially a building inside of a building, specifically, a factory plant. It’s not just a room, though. An inplant building is more like a suite of rooms or a building itself, with freestanding walls, it’s own ceiling, etc., though it may incorporate some of the factory’s existing structures.

Inplant buildings can serve a lot of purposes, from creating office spaces to separating process flows and more. These inplant buildings are constructed modularly, which has a lot of benefits in terms of build time and cost.

What are the benefits of inplant buildings?

Some of the uses of inplant buildings are obvious: say you need some offices. You don’t want to set up desks and cubicles on the factory floor, next to your inspection area or where the forklifts are parked. An inplant building can solve this dilemma. If you have equipment that is loud and requires hearing protection, you can create an equipment enclosure to contain it and reduce noise to surrounding outside areas. 

One benefit to inplant buildings is their modular construction. Modular construction can be less expensive than traditional construction. Additionally, it is quicker to assemble modularly constructed buildings, which saves you time and lost production time, which saves you even more money. Plus, modular construction depreciates faster than traditional construction, an added tax benefit. 

Another benefit to modularly constructed inplant buildings is their flexibility. If you need a temporary office space for example, an inplant building can serve that purpose and be quickly and easily taken down when no longer needed. In fact, the modular components can all be reused for a new application. If you need to add onto a modular building, or change the layout in some way, modular construction offers that flexibility, since you can add new modules and reuse existing ones in new formations.

Because of their easy of assembly, you can even construct or modify your inplant buildings with your own personnel—no subcontractors required.

 

If you’re looking to create an inplant building, contact the design engineers at Angstrom Technology to see how modular construction can work for your situation, and be sure to check out our guide to Modular Offices and Inplant Buildings.

Hidden Cost Benefits To Modular Construction

Hidden Cost Benefits To Modular Construction

by | Jul 15, 2019 | Modular Construction

Modular construction isn’t just the latest trend in construction because it’s efficient—although it is, and that is a major benefit—it’s also on the rise because some of the amazing financial benefits that come from modular construction, some of which you might not realize when first weighing the option. Here are some of the hidden cost benefits to modular construction that could make all the difference in your cleanroom or office suite addition.  

Lower overall cost

This isn’t hidden, necessarily, but it’s worth stating, again and again: Modular cleanrooms, when compared to conventionally constructed cleanrooms with the same features, are going to cost less. The savings you’re going to see from modular construction, in terms of the construction and installation cost, the cost of special features, the time it takes to build, and the maintenance costs are going to put conventional construction out of the running.

Depreciation

Modular construction depreciates at a faster rate than conventional construction—in fact, up to five times faster. While that much not be a positive if you’re purchasing a modular home to live in, it is a positive if you’re a business building a cleanroom, offices, or other additions to your facilities. Why? Tax advantages. With current tax codes in place, the initial cost of a conventionally constructed cleanroom or office suite or other space would have to be over 30 percent less than the initial cost of the same space using modular construction to match the tax advantages of the modular structure.

Reuse

Traditionally constructed structures are meant to be permanent. You can’t easily disassemble them and reuse the components in a new location or in a new configuration. Additions, renovations, updates, and modifications to conventionally constructed spaces are costs hidden in the future. With modular construction, the components of your modular cleanroom (or any other kind of modular structure) can be disassembled when no longer needed, easily modified to accommodate changes in your process and needs, easily added onto, or even disassembled, moved to a new location, and reassembled. Can you do that with a conventionally constructed cleanroom? No way.

 

If you’re interested in how a modular cleanroom or inplant building can save money in the long and short run, give Angstrom Technology a call and speak with one of our expert design engineers.