These industries rely on cleanrooms and cleanroom technology

By definition, a cleanroom or ultra-clean room is a room in which certain measures and cleanroom technology ensure that the concentration of airborne particles is kept low.

Among other things, airlocks are used in front of cleanrooms to reduce the amount of particles entering the latter as much as possible.

In addition, special cleanroom clothing, special cleanroom furniture and certain cleanroom equipment as well as special cleanroom consumables and special cleaning aids are also used.

There are also specific standards for cleanrooms. The DIN EN ISO 14644-1 standard defines the terms “clean area” and “clean zone”:

In some cases, cleanrooms are not only intended to protect against excessive concentrations of particles such as dust, skin or hair, but also against contamination with germs or chemicals. Depending on how the cleanroom is equipped, other parameters in a cleanroom can also be controlled, such as humidity, room temperature or air pressure, whereby the aim is often to keep certain values constant.

The protective purpose of the cleanroom varies depending on the industry. In the pharmaceutical industry, for example, cleanrooms are primarily intended to protect against germs such as viruses, bacteria or fungi, as the products from pharmaceutical cleanrooms are usually ultimately ingested by humans. In addition, cross-contamination must be prevented in cleanrooms for the pharmaceutical industry, which can be achieved through pressure management.

Hygiene is also one of the most important protection concepts in medical technology cleanrooms and food cleanrooms to ensure that the respective products remain as germ-free as possible during production, processing and packaging.

In cleanrooms in the semiconductor industry, on the other hand, it is more important to avoid contamination with particles and ions.

The era of clean working in the technical field probably began in the optical industry in the manufacture of optical parts in the first half of the 19th century. However, some claim that the first “clean room” was created in watchmaking when a Swiss watchmaker protected the watches he was not working on from dust under a glass bell jar.

Thanks to Ignaz Semmelweiss, a breakthrough was also achieved in medicine at the same time as in the optics industry. In a study conducted in 1847 and 1848, Semmelweiss was able to prove that disinfecting hands and instruments could kill pathogens and thus massively reduce the mortality rate of mothers giving birth in hospital.

A further development in the field of cleanroom technology took place in the 1940s, when the so-called HEPA filter was developed as part of atomic bomb tests to filter radioactive particles from the room air. The development of cleanroom technology and its standardization received a significant boost not only from the military, but also from the emergence of space travel in the second half of the 20th century.

The first standard for cleanroom technology was the “US Air Force Technical Order 00-25-203” from 1961, which was drawn up by the US Air Force and, among other things, introduced a class system in which Class I was the cleanest standard, measured by a quantity of particles of a certain size. At the same time, also in 1961, the first cleanroom concept was developed by physicist Willis Whitfield , which focused on low-turbulence displacement ventilation.

A little later, a more far-reaching standard for clean work was introduced in comparison to the “US Air Force Technical Order 00-25-203”, also in the USA with the United States (U.S.) Federal Standard 209 (FS 209). This standard was published by the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST). In 1963, the new standard was approved by the US General Services Administration (GSA).

However, the FS 209 standard was not only applied in the USA, but was also widely adopted worldwide. In some countries, this US cleanroom standard was even adopted in its entirety. In 2001, however, the FS 209 standard was replaced by the ISO standard DIN EN ISO 14644.

• Pharmacies
• Automotive industry
• Biotechnology
• Chemical industry
• Display production
• Semiconductor industry/ chip industry/ data carrier technology
• Clinics/hospitals
• Cosmetics industry
• Laboratories
• Laser technology

• Food industry
• Aerospace technology
• Medical technology
• Microelectronics
• Nanotechnology
• Nuclear industry
• Optical industry
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Solar industry/ silicon technology
• Watch industry
• Packaging technology