With the outstanding discoveries made every day all around the globe, the necessity of building a good and sustainable laboratory has become much more than in previous times. This is also due to the boom in technology-related advancements in the last decade. Therefore, if you are aspiring to be associated with an academic/medical/scientific job, you must have some basic lab principles clearly embedded in your mind.
In this article, learn about the diverse variants of Cleanroom Equipment. For every new member of a lab, this is a crucial lesson that should be taken at the beginning of their scientific career. So, if you think you are one of them, give this article a read.
Before beginning with the variants, always know that each of this equipment should meet a set of standards set by a special body of authority for maintaining clean lab space. Any equipment that does not meet the standards is not accommodated inside the lab.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is responsible for taking care of these standards. Along with cleanliness, they also take factors like safety, efficiency, and quality of the product into account. So, if a product is certified by the ISO, you can definitely accommodate cleanroom equipment without a doubt.
Cleanroom Workstation:
Table of Contents
This is a sterile workspace with a tabletop structure/chamber. Inside the chamber, you can carry out your required work by just opening the front glass door. The insides are provided with an Ultra Violet (UV) light (surface mounted). You may additionally use other light sources, i.e., get them customized.
The chamber is also provided with High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters which can eliminate at least 99.97% of dust particles, other polluting substances, and even microorganisms. HEPA filters are a must in a cleanroom workstation for various reasons, and for each specific use, there is a variant available at Global Lab Supply. So, based on the requirements of your cleanroom, the workstation should contain a definite type of HEPA filter.
There is a line of standardized sizes of workstations that you may find in stores and even online. Try to calculate all that work that will be done in the workstation and go for the best variant available.
Cleanroom Air showers:
A cleanroom should always be equipped with an efficient air shower system. While this may sound absurd at first, this will make sense once you get to know the significance behind using it. As already mentioned, a cleanroom is a completely sterile environment with minimum contamination.
Hence, when a person from outside is entering into the cleanroom, they will be carrying tonnes of airborne particles with them, including hair and skin cells—ultimately contaminating the space. In order to avoid this kind of situation, cleanrooms have an air shower system (preferably just outside or adjacent to the cleanroom).
They are generally made up of plastic laminate and have a wide range of sizes available—so you can pick up the most suitable for your lab. Air showers are more efficient in cleaning dust particles off a person because they are designed in such a way so that a person will be cleaning from all directions possible (unlike the conventional and unidirectional rain shower).
Pass-Through Chambers:
This is quite evident from the name itself that pass-through chambers help in passing various materials/utensils/products/samples enter and exit the cleanroom with anyone carrying them. This is an excellent invention for the scientific community as repeated exit and entry of members within a cleanroom can increase the chance of mass contamination without anyone’s knowledge.
It is also not a feasible option to use the air shower every time someone enters the cleanroom from outside; hence pass-through chambers are installed for a hassle-free experience. They are built up with heavy-duty locks so that when it is not in use, they can prevent contamination from the outside into the inner environment. Additionally, pass-through chambers have a double-lock system to prevent the same.
It is important to carefully check the features that are provided with a pass-through chamber and select the most efficient ones, for example, ones with a HEPA filter installed in them.
Automatic Sliding Doors:
When working in a lab environment, you should try not to touch anything other than your samples. This reduces the chances of contamination and obtaining failed or false reports in your experiments. Therefore, automatic sliding doors are another must that a cleanroom should be equipped with. As the name suggests, this works automatically based on specific sensory mechanisms.
