Ensuring comfort within your Cleanroom
- By Nina Swarbrick
- 6 Mar 2017
Monitoring of temperature and humidity control within a Cleanroom is essential to reduce microbial growth and control static build-up, as well as ensuring employee comfort.
Relatively humidity (RH) influences a number of factors that could degrade the overall cleanroom performance, including:
- Bacteria growth
- Static charge build-up
- Metal corrosion
- Moisture condensation
- Water absorption
- Photolithographic degradation;
- Personnel Comfort
Humidity also impacts particle control: High humidity can cause staff members to sweat, and in low humidity conditions, static electricity can affect the movement of particles. For example, when it is too dry, any residual particles on labels or supply packaging will stick to gloves and other surface. Higher humidity also becomes oppressive; humidity lower than 30% leads to dryness, cracked skin, respiratory discomfort and unhappy personnel.
A 40% to 60% range in RH minimises the impact of bacteria and also falls well within the personal comfort zone.
Selecting the right cleanroom apparel for maximum comfort
Individuals shed particles more rapidly when sweating or shivering. A staff member who is too hot is more likely to take gowning shortcuts, while a staff member who is too cold is more prone to wearing inappropriate garments for a the controlled environment. A comfortable cleanroom temperature is directly related to the extent of gowning required.
Garments – Our range of coveralls are designed to high levels of quality, comfort, durability, breathability and protection to suit a wide range of cleanroom and laboratory applications. The unique comfort-fit design offers a greater range of movement, improved mobility, a more tailored fit and overall better comfort.
Eye Protection - Our Uvex range of sterile goggles and spectacles are the first autoclavable safety eyewear with anti-fog coating for specialist requirements in laboratories, clinics, cleanrooms and food manufacturing. With panoramic and unrestricted lateral vision, this lightweight range of eye protection provides optimum comfort.
Gloves – Personal choice - latex gloves can tend to cause some wearers to sweat, our range of Nitrile gloves are a versatile laboratory glove with proprietary STERLING* NITRILE technology that combines protection with strength & comfort. Stronger and leaner than latex, with better protection against a wide range of chemicals, these extremely tactile gloves are excellent for handling delicate instruments.
Pouch Style Face Masks – The KIMTECH Pouch style face mask provides essential process protection and comfort needed in clean and controlled environments, helping you to reduce the risk of contamination. Providing better filtration of air than a standard face mask, the pouch style mask offers ultimate comfort and breathability.
You can also view our Heat & Humidity Range and contact us for more information