Cleanroom Flooring Questions 1

[jjanachowski]

I am a pharmaceutical process engineer amidst a scale up. My company is increasing cleanroom space by approximately 3,000 sq. ft. I am looking into different suppliers and contractors for the cleanroom floor, and am trying to find out what the best suitable product would be. Inside the cleanroom there is mostly stationary equipment, consisting of filling machines and storage space. I have seen both a covering and a poured floor. I am just wondering what are the pros and cons, and what is more popular. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[quark]

Poured flooring is, generally, of either epoxy or poly urethene and covered flooring is of PVC. The choice is highly subjective in my opinion.

Epoxy/PU Flooring Advantages

1. Monolithic
2. Self Leveling (to some extent)
3. Smooth finish
4. No special equipment required for laying.
5. Scratches and other surface defects can be masked by a thin layer as and when required.
6. Flooring can be done with machinery in place.

Epoxy/PU Flooring Disadvantages

1. Requires dry flooring(about 98.5%).
2. Not scratch proof.
3. Color changes if exposed to acids(my experience is with HCl and HNO3).

PVC Flooring Advantages

1. Shock proof and scratch proof to some extent.
2. Costs a bit less when compared to epoxy/PU flooring.
3. Minimum shade variation.
4. No moisture problems
5. Chemical resistant.

PVC Flooring Disadvantages

1. As jointing is done by thermal fusing, it requires special equipment.
2. Rough when compared to epoxy/PU flooring.
3. Can't take care of small undulations on the surface.
4. If damaged, entire flooring has to be changed if you don't like patch work.

Regards,

 

[knox1971]

Folks:
I am new to the group, so the question may be silly. I have read some information (e.g. Carpet and Rug Institute web site) about carpet acting as a filter for airborne particulates. I wonder if anyone with cleanroom experience has done any measurements of airborne particulates in a clean room (maybe a hallway or a corridor) with and without a carpet flooring and + or - walking to see if this is actually the case.
Thx
knox1971

 

[IRstuff]

While carpets do tend to hang onto dirt and dust, hence the need for carpet shampooing, any strong scuffing will still kick up dust, etc. And, carpet fibers do eventually shed, and the fiber sizes are mondo compared with the levels that HEPA filters are intended to remove

They may be OK for Class 100,000 areas, but serious clean rooms can neither stand the collected dust, the shed fibers and the electrostatic discharge issues.

TTFN

 

[quark]

knox!

Fundamentally, all the airborn contaminants in a cleanroom should be trapped and taken away from the control space and we can't just keep them in the area. You will definitely raise those particles up when you walk on the carpets. Further, carpets will become breeding grounds for microorganism.

Fiber shedding, as IRStuff rightly pointed out, is a big problem.