Open concept offices are the new thing in corporate design, and the idea of the open workspace is expanding into cleanrooms and laboratories as well. There are many benefits to open concept workspaces, like increased transparency and cooperation, but also some downsides, like the noise level. Besides these factors, there are additional considerations for open cleanroom design, due to the nature of the processes and requirements of cleanrooms. If you’re interested in open cleanroom design, here’s what you should consider.

Benefits of Open Cleanroom Design

Transparency and Collaboration

In an open laboratory workspace, everyone can see what everyone else is doing. This can mean that chemists and product engineers are working together in the same space. These different groups can interact with each other in an open setting, offering each other ideas and solutions based on their unique insight and expertise. You’ll also get transparency across teams, so that everyone is aware of what’s going on and what other teams are working on or exploring.

Flexibility

An open floor plan allows for the layout of your cleanroom to change as your organization’s needs and applications change. New equipment can be added to accommodate a new process, additional workspaces can be added for new staff, and furniture and equipment can be rearranged to best serve the needs of the cleanroom at the time.

Cost Savings

Open concept cleanrooms can save money in three major ways: they can save space in your facilities, freeing it up for other needs; they allow teams to share equipment, resources, and support staff because they are co-located; and have lower construction costs than creating smaller, application-specific cleanroom spaces.

Disadvantages of Open Cleanroom Design

Ventilation and Filtration Challenges

With the larger space that open cleanrooms present, getting ventilation and filtration right so that the space is adequately ventilated and meets particulate contamination standards can be difficult. 

Loud Equipment

Noisy equipment can create a lot of noise pollution in an open cleanroom, and that noise may be disruptive to sensitive processes as well as disruptive to personnel.

Sensitive Work and Processes

Some processes and tasks are extremely sensitive or are at great risk for factors like cross-contamination. These processes need dedicated space, and likely have more stringent cleanroom standards and procedures that other cleanroom applications.

Solutions for Open Cleanroom Design

One way to solve some of the challenges of an open cleanroom is modular design. The flexibility of modular cleanrooms allow for changes to the layout of the space as needed. For applications that need dedicated space because of the delicate nature of the processes, a modular design allows you to create that necessary space within the open cleanroom. Soundproof modular rooms for noisy equipment can solve the noise issue in the otherwise open space.

Angstrom Technology can design a cleanroom to meet all your requirements and design considerations. Speak with one of our design engineers to get started.

Many applications require limited static:  electronics manufacturing, air traffic control, chemical labs, and semiconductor are just a few examples. If your cleanroom application involves sensitive, specialized electronics, hazardous chemicals, or other delicate equipment or processes that may be sensitive to static, you’re going to want to ensure that your cleanroom environment controls static. Here are things to consider when designing your cleanroom when you want to control static.

Anti-static flooring

There are several flooring options for static control. They work by grounding the static charge that naturally builds up in any environment, moving it through the floor to the ground and preventing it from building up and affecting your processes.

There are two main types of anti-static flooring, dissipative and conductive, and these are both available at varying levels of resistance (measured in ohms). The resistance and type of anti-static flooring you need will depend on the risk of electrostatic discharge as well how critical the effects of electrostatic discharge would be for your application.

Anti-static wall panels

Anti-static wall panels are also available for controlling static within a cleanroom. Cleanroom-specific anti-static wall materials are crucial, as cleanroom wall materials will also control particle shedding, preventing particulate contamination in the cleanroom environment. Additionally, wall panels with picking bins or storage for ESD components can protect static-sensitive items.

Clothing and gowning procedures 

In addition to the gowning procedures already in place for your cleanroom, if your aim is to control static, you may want to implement new clothing and gowning protocols. These may include anti-static garments or ESD cuffs, low-static shoes, or even equipment such as an air shower before entry to the cleanroom environment.

Even if anti-static garments aren’t necessary, you may want to prohibit wearing static-prone and high-static clothing articles, like those made of fleece and similar fabrics, in the cleanroom environment, or require basic gowning in a lab coat.

No matter the environmental factors you need to control, Angstrom Technology can design and install a cleanroom that works for your application.