What’s the Best Type of Flooring for Pharmaceutical Cleanrooms?

What’s the Best Type of Flooring for Pharmaceutical Cleanrooms?

by | Jul 14, 2022 | Uncategorized

When you think about a pharmaceutical cleanroom, the floor probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, it may even be the last. 

For many facilities, floors are the most forgotten component of cleanroom design. However, the type of flooring you choose for a pharmaceutical cleanroom has a huge impact on overall contamination control and performance. This is of utmost importance when you’re working with consumables like medicines and supplements that need to be safe, effective, and repeatable. 

4 Common Types of Cleanroom Flooring

Let’s take a look at four of your cleanroom flooring options. Then, we’ll give some insight on which may be best suited for pharmaceutical applications. 

1. Heat-Welded Vinyl Cleanroom Flooring

Heat-welded vinyl is a seamless pharmaceutical flooring solution. It has no crevices for contaminants to accumulate in and expose your cleanroom to. It also provides the option to implement a cove base up the wall (typically 3 – 6”), which eliminates 90° corners where floors and walls meet and further prevents contamination to settle and be difficult to clean. 

Heat-welded vinyl flooring is also easy to clean and can withstand harsh cleaning agents, lessening the burden of rigorous pharmaceutical cleanroom cleaning protocols. It’s relatively economical as well. 

One downside of heat-welded vinyl flooring is that it can wear out quickly when exposed to heavy weights. But if you’re working in a pharmaceutical cleanroom with minimal heavyweight equipment, it’s a great overall choice. 

2. Epoxy-Coated Cleanroom Flooring

Epoxy is a coating placed over a solid concrete substrate, usually in a three-part process. First, the flooring must be prepped with a combination of grinding, scarifying, shot blast, and filling in larger holes or cracks where moisture can seep in. A rough surface is necessary for the epoxy to adhere to. This coating allows for a seamless surface with no crevices for contaminants to build up and harm the integrity of your cleanroom. Similar to heat-welded vinyl, there’s also an opportunity to install a cover base that eliminates 90° corners where floors and walls meet. 

Epoxy-coated cleanroom floors are dense with low porosity, which makes them easy to clean and durable, even when exposed to heavy weight and high traffic. They don’t shed any particles, and you can even opt to add anti-static features. 

Epoxy-coated floors also come in a variety of colors, so you can choose which best suits your pharmaceutical cleanroom. 

3. Polyurethane-Coated Cleanroom Flooring

Polyurethane is another coating placed over a solid concrete substrate, usually in a one- or two-part process. It exhibits a glossy or satin finish that maintains its shine even when exposed to heavy weight and high traffic. This light-reflecting property is great for extra illumination within the cleanroom environment. 

Polyurethane-coated floors are also resistant to harsh chemicals and substances, which make them highly effective in industrial manufacturing cleanroom applications. 

4. Interlocking Vinyl Tile Cleanroom Flooring

Interlocking vinyl tiles are newer to the cleanroom flooring world. They fit together like puzzle pieces to create a seamless floor — all of which makes for quick and easy installation, even above existing, worn subfloors. 

Most interlocking vinyl tiles are easy to clean and durable enough for heavy traffic. Some can also be treated for anti-static performance. There is also a wide range of colors and finishes to choose from, so you can ensure your cleanroom looks as great as it operates. 

What’s the Best Type of Flooring for Pharmaceutical Cleanrooms?

There’s not a “one-size-fits-all” answer to this question. The best type of flooring for your pharmaceutical cleanroom greatly depends on the specifics of your facility and application. 

However, we can offer some general guidelines in relation to pharmaceutical cleanroom needs. Most importantly, pharmaceutical cleanrooms need to be cleaned often, so it’s important to have a floor that can withstand frequent cleaning and harsh chemicals. Also, in most cases, pharmaceutical cleanrooms are exposed to quite a bit of traffic. You need a flooring option that operators can walk freely on, without having to worry about particle shedding. 

With all of this information in mind, we can provide the general recommendation that either heat-welded vinyl or epoxy-coated floors would be best for your pharmaceutical cleanroom. However, it’s important to remember that this recommendation doesn’t ring true for every pharmaceutical cleanroom, so it’s best to consult with a trusted cleanroom manufacturer to confirm. 

Design Your Pharmaceutical Cleanroom With Angstrom Technology

Need help deciding on the right type of flooring for your pharmaceutical cleanroom, or any other design element? Don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at Angstrom Technology. As experts in cleanroom design and installation, we’re happy to recommend the components and materials that will be most effective for your application. Give us a call at (888) 768-6900 or contact us online today. 

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Press Release: Angstrom’s New Facility

Press Release: Angstrom’s New Facility

by | Aug 10, 2018 | Uncategorized

Angstrom Technology is pleased to announce that our new facility has finally been completed. The building is located at 3509 3 Mile Road in Grand Rapids, alongside DK Engineered Construction. The new facility is 20,000 square feet and houses our cleanroom, modular office design and build firm, as well as our corporate office. We look forward to settling in to our recently completed and freshly landscaped new home!

Our employees are Angstrom Technology’s greatest attribute, and the quality of our people and their work is unsurpassed in the industry. That’s just one of the reasons we’re so proud to have built a new facility giving our valuable employees a place to call home!

Angstrom Technologies main office is located here in West Michigan, with satellite sales offices in Ohio, Pennsylvania and California.

As an industry leader in cleanroom production, Angstrom Technology’s mission is to be a top resource for cleanroom consulting, design, installation, equipment, and repair. With extensive knowledge of cleanrooms and the industries they serve, Angstrom ensures that our clients get exactly the cleanroom they need for their project.

Come visit us at our new facility and see just what we do, and how our modular cleanroom solutions can work for you. Call or contact us online to get a quote or set up an initial consultation, at our place or yours!

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New Trends in Cleanroom Design

New Trends in Cleanroom Design

by | Feb 26, 2018 | Cleanroom Design, Cleanrooms, Manufacturing Cleanrooms, Medical Laboratory Cleanrooms, Pharmaceutical Cleanrooms, Uncategorized

Now that the holidays are over and the new year has begun, you might finally be getting around to implementing a new cleanroom in your facility. If you’re designing a new cleanroom or updating your current one, here are the latest trends in cleanroom design that you should consider as you design your cleanroom space.

 

Sustainability

Sustainability is an important consideration for all of us, including corporations. Because cleanrooms use so much energy to maintain the desired environmental conditions, engaging in sustainable practices when possible is crucial. Not only do these sustainability efforts support the natural environment, they are also energy efficient, which can help you save on energy costs. Using energy efficient equipment and energy efficient LED lighting can aid in sustainability efforts, as can a modular cleanroom. Modular cleanrooms can be altered and right-sized as the needs of your company change, while reusing the modular components, and require less material than traditional construction. Additionally, modular cleanrooms can make use of the currently existing HVAC and ventilation systems in your space, rather than requiring separate systems.

 

Transparency

Now, more than ever, we’re aware of the value of transparency from leaders and companies. When it comes to your cleanroom, the primary concern will always be the integrity of the controlled environment within, and it may also be important to maintain privacy for the safety of intellectual property, but cleanrooms can benefit from some openness and visibility. Using transparent partitions in the place of opaque walls can provide some benefits, the biggest of which being that lab processes can be observed, whether by compliance regulators or supervisors within your organization, without disturbing cleanroom processes or the environment within.

 

Flexibility

Many organizations are resisting the use of specific dedicated spaces for certain tasks or operations, instead opting for more shared spaces and flexibility in order to reduce costs and under-utilized space. This means incorporating fixtures and furniture, such as lab benches and workstations, into your cleanroom that can accommodate a variety of tasks or processes, as well as modular cleanrooms that can be easily expanded, contracted, or reconfigured to maximize use of space.

 

As you’re working on your cleanroom design or redesign, consider the needs of your company and your cleanroom, as well as how the cleanroom can continue to meet those needs over time, with organizational and regulatory changes. Incorporating sustainability, transparency, and flexibility into your cleanroom design can make your cleanroom efficient and future-proof, not matter the changes to come.

Looking to design a new cleanroom? Get in touch with the cleanroom experts at Angstrom Technology.

Who Really Uses Cleanrooms?

Who Really Uses Cleanrooms?

by | Mar 31, 2017 | Cleanrooms, Uncategorized

Cleanrooms sound like something out of a science fiction movie. A bright white room where employees wear scrubs, booties, and hair nets? Seems a bit like Westworld. Though they may seem like odd, sterile environments, cleanrooms are absolutely essential to the future of technology and industry. Their high-tech capabilities make it possible to create an environment that’s as free from contaminants and air particulate as possible.

If you have a cleanroom, or are interested in installing one for your application, you probably already know what a cleanroom is, but what you might not know is just how common they are. In a way, they’re the unsung heroes behind technological advancement. Most people don’t know that cleanrooms are actually very widely used in a variety of applications. In fact, you probably have more than a few things in your home or even on your person that were made with the help of a cleanroom. Basically anything you can think of that requires precise manufacturing requires a cleanroom. In fact, some of the most common cleanroom applications might surprise:

Optics

Every photographer is looking to find the clearest lens on the market. From the consumer’s side, it’s just a matter of choosing a camera that’s well-reviewed and offers high resolution. But someone does have to make those crystal clear lenses that go inside of the camera. To make lenses and other optics pieces like smartphone cameras, a cleanroom is absolutely necessary. Cleanrooms ensure no particles are floating around in the manufacturing space that could dirty the lenses, and they control both temperature and humidity to create the perfect environment necessary for precise creation of optic parts.

Nanotechnology and electronics

The chips and nanochips that go into all of those technological devices we love so much, like our computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets, are insanely small. These small pieces, however, hold and store tons and tons of data, and have to be 100% accurate for the rest of the machine to work properly. That’s where cleanrooms come in. The smallest speck of dust on the wrong part of a nanochip can render a computer ineffective, so it’s important that they be manufactured within a strictly monitored cleanroom. As nanotechnology continues to expand, cleanrooms have also become useful in recent green energy initiatives. Cleanrooms are now being set up to house nanotech solar cell production, a more cost-effective way to create widespread solar energy.

Research facilities

Whether they’re on a college campus or at a pharmaceutical company, research facilities are one of the most important ways to create innovation in science and medicine these days. Cleanrooms function as a controlled environment that allow scientists within research facilities to run multiple experiments and tests while being absolutely sure that outside variables are the same. Cleanrooms take out all of the guesswork that exists in uncontrolled environments and offer scientists the most accurate results possible. Without cleanrooms, scientists would have to complete experiments far more times, which lengthens the research process and slows innovation.

Aerospace

The aerospace industry is another realm you might not guess uses cleanrooms. Typically, when one thinks of aerospace engineering, the construction of a giant plane is what comes to mind. But actually, many of the tiny parts that planes need to fly, as well as very advanced spaceflight lasers, require absolute accuracy in production. Cleanrooms are the only way manufacturers can achieve this level of accuracy. The pieces that go together to form lasers that can vaporize space debris or charge the batteries of aerial vehicles are very tiny and can be rendered completely ineffective with just a little bit of contamination, making cleanrooms necessary.

Military applications

The government is often at the forefront of technology, most typically in the military realm. Whether they’re developing new instruments to protect soldiers, or they’re working on more efficient ways to generate energy, much of the testing and research that goes into the development process must take place in a cleanroom for many of the same reasons as other industries: cleanrooms provide a completely controlled environment that does not change and is as free of particulate and contamination as possible.

As you can tell, cleanrooms are an integral part of future technology. Without cleanrooms, we wouldn’t have a variety of medications, we would be without accurate lab testing, and we wouldn’t be able to create some of the common technology we use every day. Cleanrooms provide the perfect environment to foster innovation, and they function to advance technology and create more perfect products.

If you’re looking to install a new cleanroom, or you think your existing cleanroom could use an update, get in touch with the experts at Angstrom Technology. We’ve been in charge of building and designing cleanrooms across the nation for years and would be glad to answer any questions you might have. Feel free to give our office a call at 888-768-6900, or contact us online at your convenience.