01 March 2017

Cleanroom Wall panel skins

Wall panel skins are the surfaces of the wall panels that are exposed. Whattype of modular panel skins should your cleanroom be constructed of? To answer this question, you need to assess the purpose of the cleanroom along with how you plan on cleaning your cleanroom. Are you going to use a wet or dry agent or both?

Do you intend to sterilize or sanitize? Answering these questions will give you a cleanroom matched to you and not a cleanroom a vendor sold you off the shelf. Let’s look more closely at some of the options available.

uPVC: unplasticized polyvinyl chloride

Advantages:

Very good resistance to all major cleaning agents
Chemically welded joints and seams
Available in different colors
Average resistance to scratches
Class A fire certification

Negatives:

Need of skin supporting structure in case of scratches you lose the integrity of your wall
Once seams are welded, you lose modularity and flexibility

HPL 4 mm: high-pressure laminate impregnated with phe-nolic resins (also known as “phenolics”)

Advantages:

Very good resistance to all major cleaning agents
Available in different colors
High resistance to scratches
Class A fire certification
Easy to work for flush installation of accessories and for modification during erection
Solid, 4-mm panel; no need of supporting skin structure; in case of scratch or wall chipping, no low class material exposed to the environment

Negatives:

Cost might be higher for application where easy to clean flush surfaces are not mandatory
New to the industry in the North American marketplace

Epoxy powder coating: based on a epoxy resin with a hardener, such as DICY(dicyandiamide) or special phe-nolic hardeners

Advantages:

Very good resistance to all major cleaning agents
Available in different colors
Class A fire certification
Depending on the skin, supporting structure may have competitive costs

Negatives:

Low resistance to scratches
Need of skin supporting structure, in case of scratches integrity of the wall is lost

Stainless steel: AISI 304 or AISI 316 are normally used in the industry

Advantages:

Excellent resistance to all major cleaning agents
Class A fire certification
May or may not need skin supporting structure
In case of scratching or wall chipping, no low class material exposed to the environment

Negatives:

Low resistance to scratches and hand marks very visible. (Only aesthetic problems)
Not easy to work to allow flush applications of cov-ings and accessories
Higher cost