A cleanroom is like a blank canvas, that is really really clean, hence the name. It's a sterile environment where products can be created or worked with.
It serves as a controlled environment where pollutants/contaminants are removed from the air as well as contact surfaces to control contamination of various products such as semiconductor wafers, pharmaceutical drugs, medical PPE and more. Cleanrooms are classified according to the number and size of particles permitted per cubic meter of air.
Most cleanrooms around the world, including those based in Singapore like our facility utilized to manufacture Granzilla face mask, are built according to the International Organization for Standardization requirements.
Where are cleanrooms applicable ?
There are many industries that utilize cleanrooms, in these industries, even the smallest particle can contaminate products and ruin batches. That's why it's critical that cleanrooms maintain their high standards at all times. Some of the daily commodities we utilize in our daily lives actually goes through this facilities. Now let's take a quick look at why the might be applicable:
- Food Industry: Without a doubt, nobody wants contaminants in our food. If a particle gets in the food, it can be harmful and could lead to health concerns.
- Pharmaceutical Industry: Medicine is used to cure diseases, but if there's even a slight contamination in the medicine it won't work, cause unwanted effects and potentially cause more harm than good.
- Electronics Industry: How well do you think your mobile phone or laptop would work if it had a piece of dust or tiny particle lodged in it? If there's one thing we don't want, it's for our electronics that run our digital world to be contaminated and cause malfunctions.
- Medical Equipment Manufacturing: A rather important industry that uses cleanrooms. The medical devices you use in hospitals, personal care items such as face masks, first-aid kits are all produced by them. If these items have unintentional defects or aren't sterile, we all definitely know the outcome.
Figure 1a - A man working in a cleanroom environment
There are definitely more industries that require them but to simply paint a picture, the purpose of a cleanroom is to provide an area where sensitive operations can take place without the risk of contamination. To achieve this, strict controls are put in place to determine the actual particles (e.g: air, dirt, etc.) that are allowed in the room. The cleaner the room, the higher the classification.