What To Consider When Choosing Walls For Your Cleanroom

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When designing and planning a controlled environment such as a cleanroom, one of the most important things to think about is what materials you need for your cleanroom walls. It’s important to keep out airborne particles that may cause contamination and allow for an integrated design for control of temperature, humidity and air flow.

Each cleanroom and its application will be very unique, where containment laboratories within microbiology research will have different control requirements to that of R&D facilities within the aerospace industry. Therefore, the make-up of your cleanroom is vital in ensuring that it can be used for its intended purpose. Let’s consider the following aspects:

• The use of the room – is it a lab, cleanroom or a containment laboratory?
• Room classification – ISO 4-9, EU GMP A-D or CL2/CL3
• Specification – does the facility require fire-rated, temperature-control or humidity control properties?

Once the factors above have been decided, the most suitable panel core and finish can be chosen.

In the past, traditional insulated materials followed by a PVC coating or Epoxy paint were used to achieve a suitable cleanroom finish. However, composite panels are now a better alternative to this, thanks to their cost efficiency, rapid install time, lower permeability to water and air and less waste produced during each build.

Panel Core

The panel core will depend on your requirements:

• The Puracore Flush Aluminium Honeycomb Cleanroom system is suitable for any classification of cleanroom. The core is non-shedding, non-combustible and the system has full FM certification.
• Kingspan’s Versatile QuadCore system is a cost-effective solution that suits many cleanroom specification and possesses excellent insulation properties.
• Mineral Fibre cored panels are an ideal choice where fire ratings are important.

Panel Finish

Selecting the right panel finish for your cleanroom depends on a number of factors, including the specification, cleaning process and application:

White Foodsafe Laminate

Commonly used in cleanroom environments as harsh chemicals are present, it’s easy to clean and mould resistant.

PET

PET is a robust panel finish that is suitable for environments dealing with the harshest chemicals and detergents.

Stainless Steel

Stainless Steel is a great choice for environments that contain a high moisture level.

Depending on the application, an appropriate choice of sealant should also be considered – silicone sealant, non-silicone-based sealant or vinyl welding.

Ancillaries

Once the requirements of your cleanroom have been considered and a panel core and finish have been chosen, additional details such as doors and vision panels should also be implemented into the design. Cleanroom ancillary options are available to ensure a fully flush or semi-flush specification.

Stancold’s Clean Room Envelope Specialist Team have over half a decade of dedicated expertise in specifying and assisting in the design of cleanroom envelopes for a range of stringent applications. As an independent contractor, the team utilise an unrivalled skillset to remain an integral voice within the full turnkey cleanroom solution.

For more information on how we can assist with the cleanroom envelope for your upcoming project, please get in touch with our specialist, Mark Kendrick, on 07585 301 425, or send us details here.

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