Rules to be followed in the Cleanrooms

Within a cleanroom, many rules-of-conduct must be followed to ensure that products are not contaminated. The management must produce a set of written procedures suitable for their room. It may be useful to have these 'does and don'ts' posted in the change or production area. Commonly used procedures that may be adopted are given below. These procedures do not consider the choice of cleanroom garments, masks, gloves and similar clothing items.

Air Transfers with in the Cleanrooms To ensure that air is not transferred from an area of high contamination to one of lower contamination (e.g. the outside corridor to the production room) the following disciplines should be adhered to:

Personnel must always come in and out of the cleanroom through change areas. The change area is used not only to change clothing, but as a buffer zone between the outer dirty corridor and the inner clean production area. Personnel should not use any entrance, such as an emergency exit, which leads directly from the production area to the corridor; this will allow contamination to enter directly into the cleanroom, and their garments may also become contaminated.

Doors should not be left open. If they are, air will be transferred between the two adjoining areas because of general air turbulence as well as air transfer caused by a temperature difference between the two areas

Doors should not be opened or closed quickly, or air will be pumped from one area to the other.

Doors usually open inwards into the production room and are held shut by the higher pressure. However, to aid the movement of personnel who are carrying materials, some doors open outwards. Doors should then be fitted with door-closing devices to ensure that the doors are kept closed, and shut slowly to reduce the air transfer. Doors without handles will assist in preventing contamination of gloves.

When passing through the doors in an airlock, personnel should ensure the first door is closed before going through the Next one. Electrical interlocks between entry and exit doors achieve this, but care must be taken to ensure that there is no danger in the case of fire. Indicator lights, which show if the doors are shut, are also used. Pass-through hatches should be used in a similar way.

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