Maintaining a cleanroom involves navigating a unique set of challenges that can test the mettle of even experienced facility managers. That has a lot to do with the difficulty of minimizing airborne pollutants in a manner compliant with industry regulations.
Contaminants can come from seemingly everywhere—shoes, cosmetics, wedding rings, mold on marker pens, and multitude of other sources that are easily overlooked. Even sudden hand gestures, which create potentially disruptive air currents, may lead to disaster.
Cleanroom personnel must be continuously alert to various threats to their physical safety. Among the most dangerous of these is the phenomenon known as the arc flash, an extremely powerful electrical discharge that can easily cause lethal injury to unprotected individuals.
The need to manage these diverse hazards—those that harm sensitive materials as well as those that jeopardize the health of workers—means that cleanroom personnel must wear highly specialized apparel. Such clothing must be designed with non-linting fabric that will not contaminate the cleanroom; for certain workers, it must also provide adequate protection against arc flashes and similar perils, while simultaneously offering a comfortable solution for team members….
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