Aerospace Cleaning: How to Keep Your Aerospace Cleanroom Free of Contaminants
You cannot deny the importance of cleanrooms when it comes to the development of aircraft hardware and other aerospace equipment.
A cleanroom is designed to limit the introduction to contaminants and exposure to air particles into your cleanroom to achieve the desired component or paint finish.
So, you need to make sure that your aerospace cleanroom is completely CLEAN and free of contaminants to keep your employees, products, and processes safe.
Let’s dive deep into the topic.
What is the Purpose of Cleanrooms in the Aerospace Industry?
In the aerospace industry, cleanrooms are crucial for the development of aircraft and spacecraft hardware, optical devices, and more. Cleanrooms provide a controlled environment to filter pollutants and contaminants for the delivery of effective, safe components.
Aerospace cleanrooms are measured in particles per cubic meter (PPC) while focusing on a particular size to filter the level of particles within the given space. This size is measured in micrometer or micron.
Aerospace cleanrooms require a high level of control, ranging from an ISO 14644-1 or 14644-2, Class 5-7. For instance, ISO Class 7 cleanroom need to filter 352,000 microns (of 0.5 or larger) per cubic meter.
You must know that aerospace’s cleanroom filtration system, airflow pattern, humidity level, and ceiling fan coverage- all work together to achieve a tight cleanroom environment.
Thus, it is crucial to keep an aerospace cleanroom completely free from particulars and contaminants to get reliable, efficient, and safe results. Even the slightest presence of contamination in a sensitive component can lead to huge losses, such as complete equipment failure or a spoiled paint finish.
What are the Major Sources of Contamination in an Aerospace Cleanroom?
Now you know that the major objective of a cleanroom is to provide a contamination-free space. However, contaminations always make their way without any indication of their origin.
Some of the most common yet HIDDEN sources of contamination in a cleanroom include:
- People and Staff
- Facility and Airflow
- Fluids
- Equipment and Tools
- Raw Material and Products
- Processes
What are the Most Common Types of Cleanroom Contaminations?
All the various sources of cleanroom contamination results in pollutants that can badly affect the processes and production in a cleanroom.
These include:
- Aerosol Particles
- Dust
- Grease
- Viruses
- Fungi
- Bacteria
- Fiber
- Films
- Metals
- Skin Flakes
- Chemical vapors
- Finger Prints
- Paint Flakes
- Particles in Water, and many more.
Thus, it is important to limit the exposure of pollutants entering the cleanroom environment, making it necessary to have the cleanroom thoroughly cleaned.
How to Keep Your Cleanroom Free of Contaminants?
Contaminants are toxic to processes and crew members in a cleanroom. So, you need to eliminate them for scientific, social, financial reasons.
Below are a few tips you can integrate into your cleanroom protocol to help reduce and prevent the risk of cleanroom contamination.
- Practice Proper Personnel Hygiene
Cleanroom staff is one of the major sources of contamination in a cleanroom, producing contaminants like skin flakes, hair, and fingerprints.
Thus, it is important for cleanroom personnel to practice good hygiene. The managers should ensure to maintain uniform hygiene conditions in a cleanroom.
Also ensure to:
- Properly wear the required protective equipment-from top to bottom. It helps prevent any contaminants from falling onto clean areas of the gear.
- Observe proper hand-washing procedure.
- Cautiously enter and exit the cleanroom while ensuring that the doors are shut tightly.
- Limit speaking in the controlled environment to reduce the risk of spreading contaminants.
- Don’t wear perfume, make-up, or jewelry, or chew gum inside the cleanroom.
- Don’t scratch your head or rub your hand. Also, don’t touch your skin with the gloved hand.
- Maintain the Right Humidity and Temperature
Make sure to have a proper temperature and humidity level in a cleanroom to help avoid negative repercussions, such as bacteria growth. The ideal humidity level for aerospace cleanrooms usually ranges from 40%-60% RH with an ideal air temperature of 67-77-degree F.
It is also an ideal range for staff comfort. The sweat or shiver by employees can result in the release of more particles into the controlled environment.
- Be Careful with Cleanroom Supplies
You may think that it is harmless to take objects like a pen or paper outside the cleanroom and then bring it back in. However, doing so also brings in a range of potential contaminants.
Therefore, make sure to have all the cleanroom supplies and tools as CLEANROOM-ONLY supplies. Never take them out and make sure to use cleanroom-complaint supplies.
- Use Cleanroom-Complaint Packaging
Along with using complaint supplies, it is also important to ensure that the packaging is cleanroom-friendly. They may release particulates into the air and harm the environment of your cleanroom.
Moreover, make sure to use the qualified material for the cleanroom.
- Use the Right Cleaning Material
Make sure to use cleanroom-rated swabs, wipes, brooms, mops, and other cleaning supplies for your specific ISO class. Using the typical paper towel or the wrong cleaning material can quickly compromise the environment of a cleanroom, thus harming the production.
- Hire a Professional Aerospace Cleanroom Cleaner
Using these tips can help reduce the risk of contamination in your cleanroom. However, it is also important to get your cleanroom thoroughly cleaned once in a while.
You need to make sure that all the cleanroom equipment and parts are hygienic. And, this is a hectic process that requires professional tools, techniques, and expertise to achieve a completely clean and contaminant-free aerospace environment. So, we recommend hiring a professional aerospace cleaning company for this purpose.
If you are in need of a deep aerospace cleaning, contact us right now. We offer a range of top-notch cleaning solutions that meet the requirements of aviation and aerospace cleaning. Our cleaning system is designed to ensure gentle and deep cleaning while removing all the contaminants from parts' contours and surfaces.
Sources:
https://www.setra.com/blog/5-common-sources-of-contamination-in-a-cleanroom
https://www.mecart-cleanrooms.com/learning-center/cleanroom-classifications-iso-8-iso-7-iso-6-iso-5/
https://www.cleanroom-industries.com/index.php/resources/general-cleanroom-regulations/159