ARTICLES AND PRESS RELEASES

CleanZones, LLC: Hardwall and Softwall Cleanrooms

Softwall Cleanrooms CleanZones is a premium manufacturer of air filtration equipment and we are a leader in the cleanroom industry. We offer a wide range of products from softwall cleanroom solutions to wet process stations. We pride ourselves on offering a full service approach to our products; we have our unique six step process in place to provide a level of comfort to our customers. Read More...... Read More

Soft Wall Cleanrooms

By Dan Finkelstein - Allied Cleanrooms Many companies are seeing an increasing need for cleanrooms. Industries like electronics, pharmaceuticals, aeronautics and many others are using cleanrooms for production and testing. Clean rooms are controlled environments that range greatly depending on the type of work they are being used for. Soft wall cleanrooms are controlled environments that are still free- standing cleanrooms. An aluminum or steel frame acts as the backbone for these types of cleanrooms. From this frame is hung non-outgassing curtains or strips which make up the walls of... Read More

Laminar Clean Rooms and Bubble Boy

I've long been a fan of the T.V. show, Seinfeld. In case you're not familiar with the show, it's a situational comedy written by real-life comedian Jerry Seinfeld in which he and the rest of the cast, over the course of nine seasons, act out series of observational comedy-related vignettes in half-hour increments. I'm reminded of an episode that featured a minor character who had to be permanently housed in a bubble in order to compensate for his diminished immune system. On and off during my writing for the clean... Read More

Softwall Clean Rooms: Often More than Enough

If the purpose of a clean room is to provide an environment in which air contamination and flow can be controlled, then what is the utility of a softwall clean room? Isn't it self-defeating to make a clean room with walls that can be brushed aside by hand? Nope. Different clean rooms are used for different purposes, and softwall clean rooms are perfectly suited to many of those purposes. Consider, for example, a manufacturing facility in which precision measurement was an important part of a manufacturing process. Many companies make... Read More

Softwall Options For Temporary Testing

Environmental chambers are perfect for all the testing that must be done for sensitive research, fabrication, testing and other specialized processing. They can be atmospheric and climate controlled, making the perfect environment for conducting these tasks. The only problem is, once you are done with the testing, you are left with this bulky, massive structure. What do you do then? Simply buying one and then wanting to get rid of it a couple months later can be a big waste of money. However, there is another route that can be... Read More

IQS Featured Profile: Allied Cleanrooms

Clean Rooms With over twenty years of knowledge and experience, Allied Cleanrooms, an Allied Modular company, uses the most up to date technology to produce class 10-100,000 cleanrooms. Allied Cleanrooms works with customers through every step of the process, starting with an evaluation of the environment to determine the best possible solution that meets specifications while simultaneously offering the most value. Read More...... Read More

Industry Information

Softwall Cleanrooms

Clean rooms were initially used in the aerospace industry to aid the manufacturing process of sensitive hardware, but an increase in demand has led clean room manufacturers to fabricate these chambers for a multitude of industries such as microelectronics, research and development, defense, biotechnology, manufacturing, food processing, and pharmaceuticals. In accommodating this variety of industries, numerous types of clean rooms were developed as well. One variety is known as soft wall clean rooms.

Soft wall clean rooms are enclosures that are atmospheric and climate-controlled, and are used in industries that involve carrying out sensitive testing, fabrication, and research processes, such as biotechnology research, medical testing, and semiconductor fabrication. Soft wall clean rooms differ from hard wall clean room systems in several ways. The walls of soft wall clean rooms can be made from fabric pulled taut by a frame, or translucent plastic strips that hang from a ceiling or other overhead fixture. In addition, they are not stationary once installed. They are much more portable than hard wall clean rooms, which are usually permanently in one place once installed. Some varieties of soft wall clean rooms come in a modular design for easier and quicker disassembly and reassembly.

Soft wall clean rooms are lined with curtain dividers, which are typically made from vinyl, as clean rooms can only be constructed using materials that non-fibrous, non-corrosive, and avoid generating static electricity. Curtain dividers are especially useful if more than one process must be carried out within the same environment. Soft wall cleanrooms can also feature a tubular steel frame that supports the curtain walls, mounted filter units that draw outside air and deliver the clean air into the cleanroom. Soft wall clean rooms can be used for processes that do not require drastic amounts of decontamination. Soft wall clean rooms have several advantages, which include simple installation, easy configuration, entryway options, and portability in some varieties. Because of these advantages, soft wall clean rooms are a more economical option than their hard wall counterparts, especially if a strictly controlled and decontaminated environment is not necessary for the processes at hand. Soft wall clean rooms are capable of achieving a high level of decontamination in its own right when working in conjunction with other equipment such as double doors, air filters, and protective clothing (sometimes referred to as bunny suits).

Governmental bodies such as the U. S. Federal Government and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have implemented rating systems that classify clean rooms. The rating systems differ from each other, but both are carefully observed by clean room manufacturers. One of these rating systems, the US FED STD 209E, is based around the volume of 0.5 micrometer-sized particles per cubic foot in the clean room’s atmosphere. The higher the number of particles, the higher the rating. If a clean room must maintain an extremely low level of contaminants in its atmosphere, a set of high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters must be installed, which work in conjunction with sterilizing chemicals, personnel decontamination systems, and other measures. It is more difficult for a soft walled clean room to achieve this high of a decontamination level than a hard walled enclosure. Meeting Class 1 standards is much easier to achieve with a permanent, hard walled clean room that features double doors and decontaminating air jets. However, for some sensitive applications, a Class 1 level of decontamination is not necessary. There are many applications, including high-tech operations, for which Class 100, 1,000, and even 10,000 clean rooms will suffice. For example, a class 100 clean room can be used for processes that could cause chemical reactions, as it is made of materials that will not release fibrous contaminants into the air. Another example is that Class 10,000 clean rooms, which are not as strictly controlled and are appropriate for less-sensitive applications, such as processes that will not wear away flexible acrylics or plastics.

The ISO standards rates clean rooms on a scale of 3 to 8, with 3 being the most effective. To compare the ISO rating system with its federal counterpart, an ISO Class 5 clean room is the same as a clean room that is rated Class 100 US FED, due to both clean rooms permitting up to 100,000 contaminating particles per cubic meter. There are some industries that use the EMP EU system, which is the standard system of the European Union, and the BS 5295 system, which is used in Britain and uses cubic meters to measure airborne contaminants.


Industrial Softwall Cleanroom – Class One Cleanrooms	Softwall Cleanroom – Abtech, Inc.

Modular Softwall Cleanroom – CLEAN3 Modular Systems	Softwall Cleanrooms – Cleanrooms by United