Since the installment of the first cleanroom at Sandia National Laboratories in 1962, there have been several improvements in the aspect of hygiene and safety precautions across different sectors. Cleanrooms play a crucial role in controlling contamination through several means, helping the world progress towards a situation sensitive to hazards related to manufacturing and decreasing vulnerability.
But the question is, why do we need cleanroom attire? What are the features and benefits of such attire? How can you get one that suits your needs best? The answer to these questions lies below in this article.
What is a cleanroom?
Simply put, a cleanroom is an artificial environment designed or engineered to reduce the concentration of possible pollutants and airborne microbes. This system of maintaining cleanrooms is now being effectively followed across different fields of work, along with the wide variety of improvements that are being done to date. These trends of safe spaces and buffers help the world progress towards proper control and miniaturization of trouble related to airborne contaminants.
This level of cleanliness and safety is achieved through properly implementing and managing controlled environments, complete with a list of rules and regulations for the involved personnel to follow. This includes details and specifications pertaining to the standard precautions to be followed, what to wear, and different maneuvers and drills to be understood.
Cleanroom attire
Despite all the aspects of the cleanroom being worthy of attention, the spotlight is often placed on the attire to be worn in the cleanroom. A proper formulation and implementation of a practical yet safe cleanroom attire are essential to maintain a safe and properly functional work environment.
Rather than the contaminants reaching the workplace on their own, the human workforce becomes the major source of contaminants as they move across different stations and units. That being the case, it is better to focus on maintaining a clean and safe environment at the personal level as it would be much more practical and effective as well. This paves the way for implementing the strict legislature for cleanroom attire.
The components included in cleanroom attire are devised to cover up the personnel from head to toe. A complete cleanroom attire kit should contain HD ESD sterile and non-sterile hood, coverall, frock, boots, facemask, and sleeve cover with non-linting yarns, high-density construction, and anti-static carbon fibers. This kit would not be complete without a pair of clean room gloves that satisfy the aforementioned criteria and guidelines given by the appropriate legislative bodies.
Characteristics of cleanroom attire
Ideally, cleanroom attire should be focused on fulfilling two essential criteria. One would be to prevent contamination and infection of the environment by natural human products and, secondly, protect the person wearing the suit from possible hazards around him or her. To fulfill said conditions, the attire should possess the following features.
- Instead of small fibers in their fabric, non-linting material should be used so that it does not shed and become a pollutant in the workplace.
- The fabric used in all pieces of cleanroom clothing should possess resistance to arc flashes according to OSHA regulations. The arc flashes in question may exceed well over 35,000 F, so it is better to be prepared with proper flame-resistant clothing.
- Anti-static carbon fibers protect workers from harmful electronic malfunctions.
- High-density fabric to protect from high temperature and corrosive chemicals.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, it is important to understand the importance and necessity of the guidelines for cleanrooms established by the HACCP system. It is the duty of every worker and employee to make sure all these measures are being properly implemented and followed in their respective places. Apart from implementation, proper monitoring also goes a long way to help actually protect the workers.
