There are various changes which
happened in last few years in the cleanroom industry. Here we will speak about
two aspects; Partitions and cleanroom equipments.
The major development in clean-room partitions
industry in the past few years is the rise in demand of customization of
design/ size/ accessories and increased emphasis on quality and final finish.
Moreover, now the focus is also on higher efficiency, energy savings, sustainability,
and functionality. Furthermore, Due to increase in manufacturing demand of critical
pharmaceutical, hormonal and biotech products, most of the up-coming projects
are more complex and critical in nature. This has given thrust to the need of
customization of designs as per the need and also to the introduction of newer
materials for construction of cleanrooms.
The use of GRP (Glass Reinforced
Polymer) in cleanroom construction is a good example of change in material of
construction for critical operations. This material provides excellent chemical
resistance, scratch resistance, impact resistance and many other features like
possibility of bigger return-air risers, service panels etc. etc., which makes
it perfect choice for critical product manufacturing requiring heavy fumigation
and cleaning with harsh reagents.
Another change is the increasing
need for the customized design and pre-engineered partitions. Today Powder
coated panels with integration of all utilities within panels are in demand. A
big advantage of powder-coated panels is; all cut-outs for lights, diffusers,
HEPA boxes, light switches, in-built return-air risers etc. is done in factory
on CNC machines and channels are internally welded before painting
(Powder-coating). This gives an advantage of better strength, non-exposure of
infill and better final finishing. Another big advantage of powder coating is;
better scratch resistance, chemical resistance and control of gloss level and
same coloured accessories like covings, corners etc. for better aesthetics.
Few years back the cleanroom
projects were done using normal progressive type pre-painted partitions, which
are actually general purpose partitions and all cut-outs etc. was done at site
manually. Even conduits are put at site. This was leading to longer
installation periods, inferior final finishing and lesser impact/ scratch
resistance of panels due to lower thickness of coating on panels.
The other major change in cleamroom
industry is of cleanroom Equipments. The clean room equipments that provide
solutions to contamination potentials and maximize usable space are in great demand.
Coved surfaces, flushed/ smooth component transitions and smooth final finish
of the equipments is also one of the major changes in product’s design.
Another major change in cleanroom
equipments industry is the containment solutions (Isolator technology). An isolator; it is a device that provides
a physical barrier between a Laboratory technician and a work process. This
barrier is necessary to avoid any contamination happening to the product or
human, which may result by human coming in contact with the product.
Day by day Isolators are becoming a major
part of equipments in pharmaceutical industries manufacturing critical nature
of pharmaceutical products i.e. hormones, oncology etc. These products have critical
effects over the human and vice versa hence a strong barrier is required to
avoid any type of contamination. Another advantage of this technology is that
it is used for maintaining the required cleanliness class and conditions in a
small area instead of maintaining the same cleanliness class and conditions in
the whole manufacturing area, so it in turn reduces the HVAC and other running
costs drastically.
GMP has grabbed this opportunity and
has already started manufacturing isolators in its new state of the art
manufacturing facility near Mumbai. This manufacturing facility houses the latest
laser cutting machine (Trumph make True Fibre Laser 1030) and all other
machines are also CNC controlled and are latest in terms of technology.