Lighting is an often overlooked but critical part of the cleanroom design process. A poorly lit cleanroom makes work difficult, and a cleanroom with energy inefficient lighting is not sustainably designed and increases energy costs. When designing a cleanroom, choosing lighting options that work for your application can also help control contamination and promote temperature control. Here are the cleanroom lighting options explained to help you in your cleanroom design project.
Lighting types
The first lighting option to consider is the type of lighting to use: incandescent, fluorescent, or LED. The chart below briefly explains how each of these types of lighting work, as well as their costs and benefits.
| Incandescent | Fluorescent | LED |
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Incandescent lightbulbs are the traditional lightbulbs. They contain a capsule inside that holds gas around a wire filament, which went electricity is applied, gives off light. They give off heat as well as light, which makes them an inefficient light source and an energy waster. In fact, incandescent bulbs are banned in several countries. In addition to their inefficiency, the light they give off is often not bright or consistent enough for cleanroom applications. |
Fluorescent lights work by ionizing mercury vapor inside a glass tube, which causes the gas’s electrons to emit UV light, which is converted to visible light by the coating of the glass tube. They’re available in the traditional long tubes as well as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which are shaped like incandescent lightbulbs. They are more efficient than incandescent bulbs without being much more expensive and are appropriate for many cleanroom applications. |
LED lights, which stands for Light Emitting Diodes, are the most energy-efficient lighting option. They create solid-state lighting by converting electricity directly into light, unlike incandescents and fluorescents. They tend to have a higher initial cost, but their efficiency offsets that cost. LED lighting is often ideal for cleanroom applications, as they do not produce any heat. |
Also worth considering is natural lighting—you may want to evaluate whether is it possible and practical to incorporate windows into your cleanroom design. Natural light is free, but windows may come with some inefficiencies in terms of temperature control.
Lighting fixture options
There are a variety of fixture options for cleanroom lighting, including
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Lighting is an important consideration at the design phase of a cleanroom and the choices you make should compliment your overall envelope solution. Here we will talk you through some of the options available.
Everyone knows what watts are, but there are other measurements for lighting, including how much light you need, how intense it should be, and how far you need it to go. These measurements are:
Cleanroom or clean room environments are extremely specialized with requirements for each technology brought into the space. Cleanroom lighting is no exception. But what is a cleanroom?
If your employees don’t follow proper gowning techniques, you risk contaminating your cleanroom environment and damaging products in the process. Taking time to periodically review proper garment selection, dressing procedures and expectations of staff members before they enter a cleanroom environment helps prevent unwanted incidents.
Research and development cleanrooms that operate on a daily basis for pharmaceutical or electronics development organizations, among others, must maintain the sanctity of their cleanroom space with proper, professional and thorough cleaning—nothing less. Avoiding or improperly cleaning the controlled space can result in catastrophic cross contamination, wrongful results, lawsuits or worse.
Whether lab technicians like it or not, cleanrooms are exposed to contaminants. Adulteration can occur from personnel, equipment, or even incorrect decontamination processes. Since many cleaning methods exist, it’s important to select one that’s best for your application; an careless technique may redeposit contaminants onto surfaces rather than take them away. Understanding particle-to-surface bonding (electrical, physical, or chemical) is one of the first steps to optimal cleaning efficiency. Keep reading for more tips that ensure your cleanroom remains clean.
Cleanroom cleaning requires many specialised products. Dr Tim Sandle, head of microbiology, Bio Products Laboratory, addresses the importance of product selection and cleaning techniques in the pharmaceutical manufacturing environment.
After you’ve dedicated your time and resources to outfit your cleanroom with the best materials and equipment, you want to make sure to maintain an exceptionally clean environment so your cleanroom can function at peak performance. A lot of factors go into making sure your cleanroom is as clean as possible, from the products you use to the staff that use them. No matter what class rating your cleanroom has, cleaning your cleanroom will ensure longevity and improve efficiency.
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