{"id":14925,"date":"2016-02-04T12:07:48","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T17:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.constructionspecifier.com\/?p=14925"},"modified":"2016-02-04T12:10:44","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T17:10:44","slug":"trends-in-clean-roomwash-down-doors-and-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionspecifier.com\/trends-in-clean-roomwash-down-doors-and-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"Trends in clean room\/wash-down doors and walls"},"content":{"rendered":"
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All photos courtesy Rite-Hite Doors<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Jon Schumacher
\n<\/strong>Similar to most industrial sectors, regulatory requirements in both pharmaceutical and food manufacturing have become more stringent than ever. In response, the equipment and processes used in these industries have also become more sophisticated. A prime example of this can be seen in the ongoing improvements in door and wall products used in clean room and wash-down applications.<\/p>\n

In both the pharmaceutical and food industries, clean rooms are essential for ensuring contamination control. Moreover, clean room planning has evolved into its own specific area of industrial design. Keeping airborne contaminants generated by people, process, facilities, and equipment from suspending in the environment is a primary concern for these designers. However, clean room designers have increasingly come to realize one of the best ways to minimize contamination is to prevent contaminants from entering the room in the first place\u2014hence, the growing interest in clean room doors and walls.<\/p>\n

As their name suggests, clean rooms create environments that maintain an extremely low level
\nof environmental pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles, and chemical vapors. More accurately, a clean room has a controlled level of contamination specified by the number of particles per cubic meter at a specified particle size.<\/p>\n

To give perspective, the ambient outside air in a typical city contains 35 million particles per cubic meter in the range of 0.5 \u03bcm and larger in diameter, corresponding to a rating of \u20189\u2019 under International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14644-1, Cleanrooms and Associated <\/em>Controlled Environments<\/em>, while an ISO \u20181\u2019 clean room allows no particles in that size range and only 12 particles per cubic meter of 0.3 \u03bcm and smaller. (As a point of reference, human hair is about 75 \u03bcm across, depending on the person.)<\/p>\n

In the pharmaceutical industry\u2014where clean room requirements of ISO \u20186\u2019 to \u20188\u2019 are common\u2014clean rooms play a crucial role in the manufacturing of products required to be free from microbial and particulate contamination and be protected from moisture. Although regulations are not quite as stringent in the food industry\u2014with respect to the particulates range\u2014clean rooms, clean areas, and wash-down walls are equally important in the prevention of contamination.<\/p>\n

In both industries, doors and walls play an essential role in clean room operations. Today\u2019s high-performance fabric doors fit virtually anywhere and are uniquely designed to address the need for environmental control, productivity, safety, and cleanliness. They are used not only to prevent cross-contamination, but also to aid in maintaining correct room pressures and air circulation rates, and helping to ensure optimal operating efficiency. While anti-microbial walls have always been important in segmenting environments with differing levels of clean requirements (or clean\/non-clean environments) there is a growing use of flexible, industrial \u2018curtain walls\u2019 for applications subject to wash-down protocols. Not only are they quicker, easier, and less expensive to install than traditional construction, but they can also be moved or reconfigured if changes in the process or floor plan occur later.<\/p>\n

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Less surface-to-surface contact helps to minimize bacteria growth on surfaces. <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The role of doors
\n<\/strong>High-performance doors and flexible fabric curtain walls have evolved in recent years and are a viable option for various food and pharmaceutical applications.<\/p>\n

The primary function of most industrial doors is to provide tight environmental separation, yet allow occupants and equipment to quickly and safely move from one area to another. For pharmaceutical manufacturing, doors take on an even larger role by allowing companies to achieve and maintain a specified level of cleanliness for a given clean room. High-speed fabric roll-up doors (also called upward-acting doors) are commonly used in clean rooms. They are also an integral part of airlocks that form buffers between different classes of clean areas.<\/p>\n

The goal in virtually all clean rooms is to maintain an air pressure differential between rooms, pushing air from the opening\u2019s cleaner side to the less clean side. Occasionally, the goal is to keep particulates within a certain room to avoid cross-contamination with the processes in adjoining rooms. For these reasons, most facilities incorporate multiple pressure steps within the building\u2019s structure. The steps typically range from 5 to 13 Pa (0.02 to 0.05 w.g.) between rooms, but can be as high as 50 Pa (0.2 w.g.).<\/p>\n

A door capable of at least 0.2 w.g. in pressure differential is needed to maintain a tight seal and minimize air leakage. Given the need to maintain pressure differentials, doors that seal tightly and cycle quickly are essential in pharmaceutical manufacturing. A properly designed door helps ensure the facility\u2019s makeup fans can satisfy the required amount of makeup air needed to maintain pressure. Another prerequisite in overall door design is cleanliness, since doors must operate in
\na pristine manufacturing environment. Any high-speed door used in pharmaceutical manufacturing must also balance the need for productivity with operational safety.<\/p>\n

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The photo on the left shows smooth polypropylene (PP) providing higher resistance to acids and bases and a lower water absorption rate than vinyls and urethanes – making doors of this material highly resistant to mold and providing superior wash-down durability. The photo on the right shows the removable side frames that further assists with deep cleaning. <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Specifying high-speed roll-up doors
\n<\/strong>Bi-parting doors of stainless steel or fiberglass are widely used in pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. However, many companies also use fabric roll-up doors to meet the needs of specific applications where the bi-parting doors will not fit, due to limited wall space in many plants.<\/p>\n

A roll-up door uses little wall space because it is an upward-acting unit. In other words, the curtain of the door collects in a head assembly at the top of the door when it is opened. By comparison, depending on the configuration of adjacent walls, a rigid-panel door that opens from the center may require considerable wall space on each side of the door in order to function. As an example, a door spanning a 1.8-m (6-ft) wide opening may require approximately 0.9 m (3 ft) of wall space on each side of the opening so each panel has a place to travel when opened.<\/p>\n

A new generation of roll-up doors has come on the market in recent years featuring anti-microbial materials and other upgrades for clean room applications. These new features\u2014along with their ability to operate at high cycle speeds and provide tight sealing capability\u2014are the major reasons they are catching on with pharmaceutical and food manufacturers.<\/p>\n

How to choose a clean room door
\n<\/strong>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publish clean room standards, both required and recommended, for manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. The starting point is to look for doors that are compliant with Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) requirements.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the door\u2019s configuration, ease of cleaning and durability are key considerations. In all cases, these doors must be able to stand up to repeated cleaning with chemical solvents and have a smooth, hard, non-porous surface resistant to microbial and fungal growth. Doors should also have a tapered surface and edges that all but eliminate \u2018harborage\u2019 of dust or other contaminants\u2014this also reduces sharp angles that can harbor microbes. Additionally, they should:<\/p>\n