HVAX has been there in the cleanroom global market for close to a decade and has been a part of many greenfield, brownfield and expansion cleanroom projects. One common question we’re asked time and again is what method of construction is better. Most often then not, what they mean is which one is more affordable and time and again we’ve explained why cleanrooms are the real afforable choice considering the value that they bring to the facility and also to the pockets of the investors.
So we decided to put up a small list among many other reasons as to why it is wiser to invest in cleanrooms if you ever have the chance. If you have a factory that was done couple of years ago and are looking to upgrade into cleanrooms , contact our expert Fernando N and he would guide you on how to go about it.
So lets get to the specifics , Below is snapshot of what we are to going to break down
- Particle Emissions:
Factory managers and quality control departments need to be confident that all equipment and furnishings used within the cleanroom do not emit particles that will affect their ISO 14644-1 classification. The ISO 14644-14 standard provides a harmonized method for assessing particle emissions from equipment to determine suitability for use in cleanroom environments
Alright to make that more lucid for you , pharma factories world wide depend on clean rooms to make it easier for them to adhere to particle counts in the room. Cleanroom paritition panels do not add particles to the room unlike conventional civil wall construction does .
2. Internal Space and Return air Ducts:
Cleanrooms allow you to maximize your floor space so that the movement of product bins and machinery is easier. Conventional Brickwalls or Drywalls seldom are below 150- 200 mm thick where are cleanrooms can offer the same strength and better insulation at half the thickness. Essentially what we mean is you save 4 inches per wall and if each room has 4 walls, the math as per the layout will reveal how much floor space shall be saved. Also, Conventional construction does not allow you to have inbuilt/concealed return air ducts. While even exposed ducts with cleanroom partitions can look aesthetic, ducts on a civil constructed will be an eyesore and more importantly a non-compliance.
3.Flexibility
One of the major factor that the industry adopted and made Metallic Cleanroom Partitions mainstream is for the levels of flexibility that it offers. Machine movements or replacements are no longer nightmares, changes in room dimensions can happen over a day with trained staff. Factory does not have to go through shut down and re-validation only partial closure and rest of the facility can function optimally. In one of our case studies we have moved an entire paneling system with one of our customers to his new facility after 7 years of installation. They’re durable, strong , light and yes offer flexibility of another order.
4. Material Availability
Availability of the material is probably only one of those points that make Civil construction or dry wall construction an immediate go-ahead. As soon as the contract order is released the materials can be procured the same day and materials can reach at site on the next day. Where as with cleanroom partitions it takes about minimum 6-8 Weeks for the factory to manufacture it and then couple of weeks more for the shipping.
5. Speed of Installation
Here is where it gets interesting. The completion or installation of cleanroom partition panels can be completed at the rate of 100 -150 square meters per day for a team and once complete it does not require any curing period. Civil construction, on the other hand, is very manual labor-intensive, skill dependent, material dependent. If that’s not enough, you then have to cure periods and seasonal challenges, challenges about wall finishes, and challenges of pharma acceptable wall paint /coating systems for lesser particle generations and so on. By the time it’s all complete we’ve got customers swearing , Cleanroom Partitions always.
6. Thermal Insulation savings
Irrespective of which geography the pharmaceutical plant is in the world, we are assuming that you know that in standard cases the temperature for operations has to be 22+-3 degrees Celcius and Humidity 55+_5 RH. With Civil walls, the transmission of heat into the rooms is a huge energy cost. In pharma, HVAC energies account for a huge chunk of the energy spends and when we have insulation in place, the recurring costs highlight the savings. The R–value is a measure of resistance to heat flow through a given thickness of the material. So the higher the R–value, the more thermal resistance the material has, and therefore the better its insulating properties. To keep things simple here. the R values of Polyurethane and mineral wool are extremely high as compared to conventional constructions.
7. Acoustic Insulation Capabilities
Employers must assess the risk to workers’ health and provide information and training if they are regularly exposed to 80 decibels (dB). For those exposed to 85dB and above, employers must provide hearing protection and hearing protection zones. These regulations are particularly important for the pharmaceutical industry as many of its necessary processes produce high noise levels, which are made worse by the use of hard, reverberant surfaces in the workplace. To put these noise levels in perspective, 85dB is the noise level experienced in busy city traffic and for every 3dB increase, sound pressure also doubles. Our panels have excellent acoustic insulation capabilities ensuring the sounds arent transfered to another room and amplified. For more details on this speak to our experts.
The CleanRoom wall and ceiling panels designed by HVAX enjoys the following characteristics:
- Inhibits Microbial and fungal growth
- Surface coplanarity ( all points on the same plane)
- Absence of porosity of the materials ( smooth nonparticle shedding surfaces)
- Ease of cleaning.
- Flexibility and simplicity of assembly.
- Easy to dismantle thanks to the special profiles used that allow the panels to be dismantled even individually.
- Mechanical resistance to shocks.
- High acoustic sound insulation and thermal insulation.
- Resistance to water and humidity.
- Resistance to chemical and sanitizing agents;
- Possibility of drilling with subsequent final silicon caulking for the passage of cables, installations or for the installation of electrical outlets;
- Integrability between walls and other elements, such as doors, view windows and false ceilings
We hope we’ve answered your queries by and large. Let us know if you think there are other pressing issues that need to be highlighted here. Reach out to us at sales@hvax.in.