Wet chemical ultrasonic cleaning with solvents, modified alcohols, or aqueous media provides for a broad field of application in the field of electronics production. Thus, particles, flux material residua, and other film-like contaminations can be removed from metal electronic components, printed circuit boards, wafers, and more. Along with the cleaning medium, the frequency of the electrical signals generated by the ultrasound generator is decisive for the cleaning effect, at which the oscillating system transmits these signals as sound waves into the liquid bath.

Contamination happens long before the product enters the cleanroom; critical cleaning often happens long before the product enters the cleanroom. Critical cleaning may involve aqueous, solvent, or non-chemical cleaning agents. A cleanroom can minimize re-contamination, but the most sophisticated cleanroom or controlled environment may not correct a contaminated product.

A Surface Active Agent can be described as a substance that can modify the surface properties of liquids or solids. In cleaning applications, these agents work at the boundary layer between soil and solvent. For aqueous based products, surfactants aid water overcoming its difficulty in dissolving oils and greases. By design, surfactant molecules have two chemical groups. On one end, there is an hydrophobic component that is attracted to the oil/grease. The other group is hydrophilic and compatible with water.

An effective cleanroom garment program is a vital component of any successful cleanroom operation, but it can often seem like a necessary evil; an expense item that seems to be forever trending upwards over budget. The good news is that the costs of cleanroom garments can be reduced to reasonable levels, in many cases by thirty percent or more. The starting point must be with understanding and negotiating the best pricing for your unique requirements. Here are six critical issues to address:

With hundreds of choices and grades, selecting the most cost-effective wipe can be tricky. The most obvious criteria is the absorbency of the wipe. But, it is not well understood that absorbency varies by the contamination. Some wipes will not absorb water; others are better with solvents and lacquers.The general rule is that “like absorbs like.” For example, polyester is petroleum-based, so polyester wipes easily absorb gasoline, fuel oils, and alcohols but are far less effective on water-based contamination.

Diligently re-bidding cleanroom laundry service isn’t the only thing that you can do to manage cleanroom garment costs. The gownroom is the venue where the cleanroom garment program must perform. The garment wearer needs to be placed at the center of the process in order to re-imagine the discreet laundry contract as a component of a broader cleanroom garment system.

A Surface Active Agent can be described as a substance that can modify the surface properties of liquids or solids. In cleaning applications, these agents work at the boundary layer between soil and solvent. For aqueous based products, surfactants aid water overcoming its difficulty in dissolving oils and greases. By design, surfactant molecules have two chemical groups. On one end, there is an hydrophobic component that is attracted to the oil/grease. The other group is hydrophilic and compatible with water.

Too often, cleaning the cleanroom to a particular standard becomes an end in itself; reaching the goal or staying within limits of contamination may not be adequate. The ultimate goals—assuring cleanliness and quality performance of the product—are lost. We have to meet or exceed the requirements. In cleaning the cleanroom and the product, our goal should be to clean critically, to adopt value-added cleaning. Source: Why Clean the Cleanroom?

Developing a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for your isolators is a difficult task and depends on the very specific requirements of a facility’s processes and regulation in its industry. Here are some questions you should ask yourself. 1. What contaminants am I concerned about? 2. Would they contaminate my processes (inside) or the environment (outside)? 3. Are these contaminants inert, chemically-, biologically-, or radio-active? 4. What contamination limits have to be considered?

Teaching employees to adhere to rules of behavior or to a specific cleaning protocol is necessary. However, for both product and cleanrooms, there is no substitute for understanding the “why” of the cleaning process. Education is important whether your product and cleanrooms are cleaned in-house or are outsourced. In fact, when you outsource, educating the employees of the contractor may be even more important. Source: Why Clean the Cleanroom?