Cleanroom Construction in your Existing Structure

Cleanroom Construction in your Existing Structure

Constructing a cleanroom in any space is a major advantage of the modular cleanroom building process. Let’s look at where you can build a cleanroom in your current space and what that process looks like.

WHERE CAN YOU CONSTRUCT A CLEANROOM?

Retrofit cleanrooms can achieve any ISO cleanroom classification, and construction can happen in various spaces. However, the best type of cleanroom for each space may differ. Let’s take a look at three examples.

1.     CLEANROOM CONSTRUCTION IN A LARGE INDUSTRIAL SPACE

If you’d like to construct a cleanroom in a large space such as a warehouse, you have a lot of freedom when it comes to the square footage and layout of your cleanroom. Although you have plenty of space, it’s important only to build the cleanroom as large as it needs to be. This will not only save you money on materials during cleanroom construction but will also cut down energy usage once the cleanroom is in operation.

In a large space, you can suspend modular cleanroom panels from a strong ceiling grid or build a freestanding cleanroom. Your cleanroom can also be constructed to include existing walls, utilize light from existing windows, and even connect to the utilities of the building — as long as they meet your cleanroom classification requirements. Any type of modular cleanroom is suitable for a large space, so you can choose between a HardWall, SoftWall, RigidWall, or Seamless cleanroom — whatever will be best for your application.

2.     CLEANROOM CONSTRUCTION IN SMALL SPACES

Although large spaces offer plenty of room to spread out, don’t discount smaller spaces for cleanroom construction. A flexible modular cleanroom type — such as SoftWall cleanrooms — can be highly effective in a tighter space. SoftWall modular cleanroom panels can be arranged into more condensed layouts than their HardWall or RigidWall counterparts while still achieving ISO Classes 4-8.

Additionally, the modular design means SoftWall cleanrooms can be set up quickly, easily reconfigured or taken down and stored, and moved virtually anywhere you need a cleanroom.

3.     OFFICE SPACE TO CLEANROOM CONVERSION

Unused office space presents a great opportunity when looking for space to install a new cleanroom. A new cleanroom design can incorporate many elements of the existing structure. Depending on your cleanroom’s requirements, you may be able to use an existing ceiling grid, walls, and windows.

To convert office space into a cleanroom, you must upgrade each surface to create a flush, non-particle-shedding structure. HardWall cleanroom walls are ideal for office space conversions — offering a high level of control over environmental conditions within the space. The retrofit cleanroom design might also include antistatic flooring, a grid lighting system, and an airflow pattern that works with the customized space.

 

RETROFIT CLEANROOM CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

The process of retrofit cleanroom construction in every space will look a bit different, as it’s highly customized to each application. It involves four main steps, of which the first two are the most critical. Those include site survey, design, construction, and installation.

1.     CLEANROOM SITE SURVEY

Cleanroom construction in an existing structure relies on the planning stages to ensure your space can support the cleanroom you need. Before any work begins, a cleanroom expert must assess the space to determine whether it will accommodate the necessary equipment, furniture, and personnel. They’ll also examine the quality of the room’s air to specify filtration needs and determine what systems can be adapted or replaced.

2.     CLEANROOM DESIGN

When designing your retrofit cleanroom layout, the cleanroom designer will need to factor in how the space influences the airflow pattern. A cleanroom design expert uses computational fluid dynamics to map out the airflow pattern for your application and layout. They’ll need to know where furniture and equipment will be installed to optimize the design.

3.     CLEANROOM CONSTRUCTION

With the design complete, it’s time to move on to cleanroom construction. With modular cleanrooms, the structure is built to meet the design specification and the cleanroom’s classification standards. They are pre-wired and pre-insulated so they can be quickly assembled and installed in the existing building once they arrive.

4.     CLEANROOM INSTALLATION

Finally, the cleanroom is ready for installation in your existing structure. The installation process will be straightforward after spending more time planning and designing the cleanroom to work in your space. Modular panels will be attached to existing walls, and new walls will be set up to be either freestanding or suspended. An installation team will install HEPA filters lighting systems in the ceiling, then connect the cleanroom HVAC system.

Cleanroom construction in an existing structure requires extra care and attention. Due to the cleanroom’s critical nature, we recommend having a team of experts install the cleanroom into your space to ensure a flawless end product. This way, you get a suitable cleanroom for your application and space.

 

SPEAK TO THE EXPERTS AT ANGSTROM TECHNOLOGY ABOUT YOUR RETROFIT CLEANROOM

Are you wondering if you can build a cleanroom in your space? Give Angstrom Technology a call! Our professional cleanroom designers can assess your site and design a cleanroom that will work perfectly in your space. To get started, give us a call or reach out to us online today.

 

 

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Angstrom Technology Appoints Tom Chowaniec as New Global CEO

Angstrom Technology Appoints Tom Chowaniec as New Global CEO

PRESS RELEASE

Angstrom Technology, a global cleanroom engineering company and portfolio company of ASGARD Partners & Co., welcomed Tom Chowaniec as its new Global CEO.

Chowaniec comes to Angstrom Technology with over 30 years of professional experience leading global sales and service teams at GE Healthcare, Cardinal Health, Leica Microsystems and Agiliti Health. He has an accomplished track record of satisfying customers, creating career opportunities for employees and acquiring and integrating new businesses. Tom received his MBA with Honors at The University of Chicago in 1998. He also received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, magna cum laude, from Marquette University in 1993.

“We are excited to welcome Tom to our global group of cleanroom companies,” said Matt Isard, CEO of Angstrom Technology. “We believe he is the ideal Global CEO to lead Angstrom’s next chapter of growth and success, as we continue to expand our portfolio in the cleanroom market through global acquisitions.”

Tom succeeds Isard as Global CEO, heading up the company’s four locations:

  • Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Lancaster, U.K.
  • Wycombe, U.K.
  • York, U.K.

Isard will stay with the company as CEO and continue to hold his seat on its board of directors.

About Angstrom Technology

Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Angstrom Technology offers design, engineering, and build capabilities to the cleanroom industry. As a market leader in cleanroom production across North America and Western Europe, Angstrom serves clients in industries like aerospace, defense, technology, pharmaceutical, automotive, gene therapy, medical packaging, medical device and more. Angstrom’s passion is to provide its customers with the most effective and efficient designs, superior quality and outstanding service. For more information about our market-leading cleanrooms or to start a project with us, please contact us.

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The best wall panels for a dry room for battery manufacturing

The best wall panels for a dry room for battery manufacturing

Our recent blog post discussed HVAC systems that deliver low dewpoint air to create a dry room for battery manufacturing. But we can’t overlook the importance of an envelope system in a dehumidification system. A fully sealed panel system with well-sealed doors will insulate and protect a dry room from moisture ingress. The experts at Angstrom Technology can create a stable low dewpoint production environment to meet your requirements. In this blog post, we explain how.

DRY ROOM for battery manufacturing wall PANELS: ROBUST & FLUSH

A critical building envelope decision is the fabric of the panel finish, which must consider cleaning regimes, robustness, and surface resistivity. The latter is often most important within the battery, semiconductor, and microelectronics industries.

A flush cleanroom system eliminates trapping points, allowing for the best particulate control possible. Vision panels and doors should have flush integrations to avoid dead zones in air flows and trapping points for particulate.

STATIC DISSIPATIVE PANELS

Static dissipative plastics have a surface resistance that allows electrical charges to dissipate within milliseconds. The use of static dissipative materials will allow charges to flow to the ground in a slow and controlled way, preventing discharge to or from human contact.

ANTI-STATIC PANELS

Anti-static materials usually have a surface resistivity that inhibits the build-up of electric charges created when two materials rub together. Suppressing initial charges prevents the build-up of static electricity and provides a very slow rate of static charge decay from a hundredth to several seconds. This method can control building envelope charges in micro-electronic facilities.

PANEL CORE

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can cause lithium to catch fire or micro-electronic components to fry, so battery dry rooms must be designed and built to ground charges safely. Panels with PIR or PU cores are highly insulative, so they can trigger ESD, making them inappropriate for these environments. Instead, panels with an aluminum honeycomb core and either anti-static or static dissipative facings will help manage the grounding of charges.

FIRE RISKS

Ultra-low humidity levels combined with highly combustible materials give battery dry rooms a high fire risk, which needs careful management. A low surface spread of flame tested to ASTM E84 is essential.

 

 

Whitepaper: Dry room design guide for lithium battery manufacturing

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BATTERY DRY ROOM DESIGN & BUILD PROJECTS WITH ANGSTROM TECHNOLOGY

As Angstrom Technology are cleanroom specialists, our dry rooms can also achieve ISO classification. Not only that, but a dry room for battery manufacturing from Angstrom can also meet any applicable international engineering and building standards and regulations.

We’ve developed proven envelope solutions and reliable cleanroom HVAC designs for many applications. The Angstrom Technology group pride ourselves on our in-house expertise and capability to deliver over 100 cleanrooms annually across America, the UK, and Europe.

Tell us about your new dry room project!

 

 

Fan Filter Units and Air Handling Units. What’s the Difference?

Fan Filter Units and Air Handling Units. What’s the Difference?

If you’re considering different options for filtering and treating the air in your cleanroom, you’ve likely come across fan filter units (FFUs) and air handling units (AHUs). What’s the difference, and how can you design a cleanroom filtration system that will offer you the control you need with maximum efficiency? Let’s break down fan filter units and air handling units in more detail.

Fan Filter Units and Air Handling Units: What’s the Difference?

Both FFUs and AHUs filter and treat the air in cleanrooms and controlled environments. However, they do this differently. The most significant difference between these systems is their connection to cleanroom HVAC.

Air Handling Units

An air handling unit is synonymous with the HVAC system and acts as a centralized unit for air processing and filtration. When an air handling unit is solely responsible for delivering clean air to the cleanroom, a fan pushes treated air through a filter positioned right before the plenum and into the room.

AHUs can be simple or complex, depending on the needs of the cleanroom. Simple AHUs consist of a HEPA filter, a heating coil, a cooling coil, and a fan to push air through the unit. More complex AHUs can also contain a sound attenuator, return fan, relief air section, humidifier, intakes for outside air, and a discharge plenum.

Fan Filter Units

Fan filter units sit in the cleanroom envelope, and to reach air cleanliness standards, you can increase or decrease the quantity as needed. They are individual units that each deliver filtered air into the cleanroom. The HVAC unit still controls temperature and relative humidity, but air enters the cleanroom after terminal filtration through the separate FFUs.

Fan filter units have a more straightforward construction multiplied across the cleanroom to reach peak effectiveness. They consist of a HEPA filter, a pre-filter, and a fan to push air through the unit. The more stringent the cleanroom classification, the more fan filter units are required to reach particle count requirements. For example, while an ISO Class 8 cleanroom may only need 5-15% of ceiling coverage dedicated to FFUs, ISO Class 3 cleanrooms may require 100% ceiling coverage with these powerful filtration units.

Fan Filter Units and Air Handling Units: Pros and Cons

While one system is not inherently better than the other, fan filter units offer some advantages over an air handling unit alone.

Drawbacks of Relying on an Air Handling Unit

AHUs deliver fresh, filtered air directly into the cleanroom. Because the entire system is in-house, all filters, heating, and cooling coils are maintained in one central location. It may seem like a more straightforward construction, but using AHUs to manage the treatment and filtration of air for an entire cleanroom requires more energy and becomes more inefficient (and expensive) as your ISO class gets lower.

Disadvantages of Relying on an AHU for Filtration

  • Higher Airflow Requires More Power: The entire system pushes air into the cleanroom through one or a few filtered openings. Depending on your cleanroom size and classification, a lot of air is forced through a limited space. Using an AHU to cool and filter the air in a cleanroom takes a lot of power, especially at lower ISO levels.
  • Inefficient Configuration for Low ISO Cleanrooms: As the ISO class gets lower, there’s more reliance on the AHU and filter to provide clean, cool air for the room. When cleanrooms get more complex and house large or sensitive equipment that generates a lot of heat, making it challenging to manage heat and ACH with just an AHU.
  • Vulnerable to Filter Loading: AHUs should run 24/7 to prevent filter loading. This is when particles settle on filter media and are forced through when the system is turned back on. Tears and filter loading can reduce filter performance and are challenging to spot and address.

Why Implement Fan Filter Units in Your Cleanroom

Many cleanrooms opt for modular construction with fan filter units installed in a grid ceiling. Especially those that must support sensitive processes at a lower ISO level. That’s not to say that an air handling system couldn’t do the job just as well. But the easy installation and maintenance of FFUs make them a more widespread, efficient, and cost-effective choice.

Advantages of Using Fan Filter Units

  • Modular and Customizable: Each filter and housing is an independent system mounted in a modular ceiling grid. FFUs are entirely customizable in size, flow rate, and filter options. When designing a cleanroom filtration system with FFUs, you have more flexibility to meet your classification, project, and budget requirements.
  • Thorough and Efficient Cleanroom Filtration: Fan filter units are 99.99% efficient with HEPA filters. Or 99.9995% with ULPA, making them ideal for various sensitive applications. They also produce less noise than a large AHU.
  • Easy to Modify: Fan filter units are ideal for projects that need room to grow. To meet increased cleanliness requirements, you can simply add more FFUs. With AHUs, this would require a certified contractor to reconfigure the system and run extra conduit.
  • Easy to Maintain: FFUs also present an advantage during maintenance. Self-contained units can be accessed and replaced as needed without having to disable the entire system.

To meet productivity demands, a reliable and easily accessible filtration system is a must. And the higher filtering power means that sensitive applications, such as those working with sensors or delicate electronics, are protected from the smallest particles with accuracy and consistency.

CLEANROOM DESIGN & BUILD PROJECTS WITH ANGSTROM TECHNOLOGY

As Angstrom Technology are cleanroom specialists. We’ve developed proven envelope solutions and reliable cleanroom HVAC designs for many applications. The Angstrom Technology group pride ourselves on our in-house expertise and capability to deliver over 100 cleanrooms annually across America, the UK, and Europe.

If you’re interested in designing a cleanroom that runs at peak efficiency to cut unnecessary costs, get in touch with the cleanroom experts at Angstrom Technology. We’re happy to help design the right airflow pattern and install the solutions that will make your cleanroom cleaner.

 

 

 

 

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How to Control Humidity in Your Cleanroom

How to Control Humidity in Your Cleanroom

Controlling the humidity in your cleanroom may be crucial to meet government and company specifications and protect the integrity of your processes and product.

If the humidity is too high, bacterial growth can flourish, metal products or equipment can corrode, photolithographic degradation can occur, and condensation and water absorption can occur. This can cause real issues for processes with moisture-sensitive products, like semiconductor manufacturers.

If the humidity is too low, static buildup and discharge can become an issue, possibly causing shorts for products in electronics cleanrooms. Plus, poorly controlled humidity can make working conditions uncomfortable for your employees.

So, what are some of the methods you can use to control humidity in your cleanroom? In this blog, the experts at Angstrom Technology are here to answer that question.

Air conditioning/mechanical refrigeration

Humidity is relative, meaning that the lower the temperature is, the lower the relative humidity is. It makes sense then that lowering a cleanroom’s temperature will decrease humidity. When using air conditioning systems to dehumidify a space, the system reduces the temperature of a surface within the condenser unit to a temperature below the dew point of the airstream in the cleanroom. That surface is then exposed to the airstream in the cleanroom, and the water vapor in the airstream condenses, subsequently dehumidifying the space. The air must be re-heated to the desired room temperature and piped back into the cleanroom.

Desiccants

Desiccant systems draw air through a desiccant medium, which adsorbs moisture. The dehumidified air is then routed to the cleanroom. Consumer-grade desiccant systems collect condensate in a receptacle that must be emptied. On the other hand, commercial systems exhaust humid air through the ductwork out of the building. Vented systems can dehumidify to lower relative humidity levels at lower temperatures.

These systems are not mutually exclusive. In fact, where temperature control is also important, they work best when used in conjunction. Using a desiccant system in addition to air conditioning can also help reduce the load on the HVAC system, saving energy, wear and tear on the HVAC system, and, of course, money.

Humidity control is critical in some cleanroom applications, such as semiconductor manufacturing and pharmaceutical manufacturing, but it is an important consideration regardless of your application. Monitoring and controlling your cleanroom humidity, whether through air conditioning or mechanical refrigeration, a desiccant system, or both, is necessary to meet your cleanroom’s specifications and to ensure cleanroom integrity.

BATTERY DRY ROOM DESIGN & BUILD PROJECTS WITH ANGSTROM TECHNOLOGY

As Angstrom Technology are cleanroom specialists, our dry rooms can also achieve ISO classification. Not only that, but they can also meet any applicable international engineering and building standards and regulations.

We’ve developed proven envelope solutions and reliable cleanroom HVAC designs for many applications. The Angstrom Technology group pride ourselves on our in-house expertise and capability to deliver over 100 cleanrooms annually across America, the UK, and Europe.

Tell us about your new dry room project!

Whitepaper: Dry room design guide for lithium battery manufacturing

DOWNLOAD OUR HANDY GUIDE:

 

 

dry room design guide