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Monday, June 9, 2008

Clean Room Hoods - tips before you buy


Clean room hoods are designed to eradicate of contamination from the most critical process in the industries such as Laboratory, Pharmaceutical, Medical, Manufacturing, Sterile Assembly and Industrial facilities. If you are involved in these industries, you cannot run from using clean room hoods that suit with your requirement. Before you plan to buy any clean room hoods, there are some tips that you can use to ensure it is worth for money.

There are many manufacturers in the market producing variety of clean room hoods. Some of them designed the hoods base on your requirement. The best tip before you sign contract with any manufacturer is, you should get a manufacturer or supplier that is not only makes the clean room hoods that suit with your industries and work place, but also can provide consultation and frequent services of the device.

Since the manufacturer or supplier is specialize in this industries, they could advise you on the design and type of clean room hoods either floor type, bench top, mounted or portable air purification devices. They can customize the clean room hoods and providing service tailored to individual customer needs, now and for the future. They could create some in-house designs that using the integrated CAD systems. They are also created clean room hoods to suite each customer’s requirements, drawing on their knowledge and experience to provide easy adaptation to meet individual needs.

Man factor is very important. The best clean facility will fail, without proper understanding by its operators of the requirements of clean room hoods operation. The good suppliers, they will share their knowledge and you can utilize their knowledge based on operating clean facilities, to assist you providing training procedures, good manufacturing practices, validation, protocols and maintenance.

Also do not forget to ask your supplier on their after sales services. Good supplier of clean room hoods has a special maintenance and service team that providing 24 hours and 7day services. They are every time ready to serve you with technical assistance. A good regular maintenance contracts ensure regular care of your plant and your peace of mind.

Make sure when you buy your new clean room hoods, it is equipped with HEPA filters. HEPA is stand for High Efficiency Particulate Air. The best clean room hoods are equipped by HEPA filters 99.97% at 0.3 microns and pre-filter. Some suppliers claim that their filter is up to 99.99% efficiency. HEPA filters are rated by the ability to retain particles of 0.3 microns in size and tested with Poly Alpha Olefin (PAO). It consists of a thin pleated sheet of boron silicate micro-fibers with aluminum separators. They are particulate filters that retain airborne particles and microorganisms (gases pass freely through). So, ask your supplier about this feature for your new clean room hoods before you buy.

Another main factor to ensure you do a right decision to buy a clean room hoods is the products are complied with ISO standard (International Organization for Standardization). Good supplier of clean room hoods complies with relevant standards and guidelines are an integral part of their approach. Some of the Standards and guidelines normally meet typically include ISO 14644-1: 1999 Cleanrooms and Associated Controlled Environments - Part 1: Classification of air cleanliness , ISO 14644-2: 2000 Cleanrooms and Associated Controlled Environments - Part 2: Specifications for testing and monitoring to prove continued compliance with IOS 14644-1, ISO 14644-4: 2001 Cleanrooms and Associated Controlled Environments - Part 4: Design, construction and start-up ISO 14644.

*(Different countries have issued their own standards for measuring Clean Room cleanliness (e.g. Federal Standards 209e (USA) and BS 5259 (UK). The International Standard (ISO 14644) is being introduced in stages and the various country specific methods for the classification of clean rooms are being superseded)

So before you buy any clean room hoods, there are 5 primary tips that you should consider. One; the manufacturer or supplier can design and customize base on individual needs. Two; the supplier can also provide consultation, share knowledge, provide training and prepare some standard operation procedure for you. Three; the supplier is providing 365 days service and technical assistance. Four; the clean room hoods are equipped with HEPA filters, and last but not least is all product comply with ISO standard. On my next article, I will write about secondary factor as your tips before you buy your new clean room hoods.

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