New light fittings can make all the difference when it comes to your space, whether it’s in your home, office, or even your cleanroom. Installing lighting systems in a cleanroom can be a challenge because of the air filtration systems used. Depending on the class of cleanroom, the ceiling may be covered with filters, leaving little room for light fixtures. However, finding lighting that works effectively with the HVAC system is only one piece of the puzzle when you’re looking to brighten up your work space. You still need lighting fixtures that maintain the integrity of the workspace, require little maintenance, and of course, provide appropriate light.
Cleanroom lighting extends far beyond simple illumination. Unlike their office counterparts, these specialized fixtures play a crucial role in maintaining stringent environmental control, minimizing contamination, and safeguarding sensitive processes.
Clean rooms are controlled environments designed to minimize the presence of airborne particles, contaminants, and pollutants. They are essential in various industries, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electronics, and aerospace, where even microscopic contamination can compromise product quality and safety. One often overlooked but crucial aspect of clean room design is lighting. The lighting level in a clean room is not just a matter of visibility; it plays a critical role in ensuring the efficiency and safety of operations. This article explores the factors influencing clean room lighting, typical standards, and best practices.
Cleanroom lights are special light fixtures that are specially designed so that they do not allow particulates to enter the cleanroom thru the light fixture.
When it comes to cleanroom lighting, precision, safety, and meeting cleanliness standards are of utmost importance.
Intensive care is normally the entry point for a critically ill or injured patient into the hospital. Visual examination plays a major role in deciding the right treatment. This demands a high level of general illumination as well as good colour rendering.
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
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?
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