Cleanroom Operating Procedures
By Jan Eudy
We are building an ISO Class 7 (formerly Class 10,000) modular cleanroom on our university campus. Our students will wear bouffants, shoecovers, and frocks. Is there a gowning protocol for frocks?We also need procedures for cleaning the modular cleanroom and working in the cleanroom.
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
By Scott Mackler
A tool to balance cost and schedule while maintaining facilities readiness.
Ask the Facilities Guy: How do I produce a Disaster Recovery Plan?
By Richard Bilodeau, PE
Last month’s column laid the groundwork for developing a functional Disaster Recovery Plan. We reviewed key components of a disaster recovery plan and critical planning, discovery, and organizational steps one must take to develop a plan that functions beyond becoming a dust magnet on your bookshelf.
Principles of Cleanroom Validation
By David Muchemu
A cleanroom must be validated and certified to
a particular class before operation.
Ask the Facilities Guy: Key Elements in Facility Maintenance Plans
By Richard Bilodeau, PE
Question: What are the key elements I should include in my facility maintenance plan to ensure a “clean power” supply?
Arc Thermal and Flame Resistant Cleanroom Garments
By Jan Eudy
My company’s Health & Safety Committee requires all cleanroom operators that perform maintenance on equipment in the cleanroom to wear protective garments that are arc thermal and flame resistant.
Back to Pre-Basics
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
The pre-basics are simply doing what one, or an organization, is expected to do. In other words, to stop doing “unthoughtful” things.
How Can One Consultant Be A Paradox (pun)?
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
This column is about dealing with people like me: professional consultants.
Fire Suppression Systems For Cleanroom Wet Benches
By Jan Eudy
We are remodeling our semiconductor cleanrooms and require a fire suppression system for our wet benches inside the cleanroom. What should I specify in issuing the request for quote? How do I qualify this system once installed?
Trust, but Verify
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
This column is about judgment, with my not apparently having any; and oh, yes, about the scientific literature being flawed.
Where Does Your Management Get Its Information?
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
This is a column about the role of information in risk management. If your managers read, this column applies to YOU...
Point of View: Controlled Environments in Canada...What's New?
By Robert Nightingale
If you do an internet search on cleanrooms in Canada, you might find a few American based vendors who sell into Canada, the rare Canadian vendor in the cleanroom industry, and articles about my former company.
Achieving True EH&S In Controlled Environments
By Matt Kopecky
What most organizations require is corporate-level, stringent process control.
Ergonomically Speaking
By Bill Fleming
Operator interface systems for controlled environments are becoming more user-friendly.
Exhausting Your Options
By Kenneth J. Fisher
Facilities and purchasing managers can achieve positive results for fire safety and occupant health and safety while capturing cost efficiencies through green system material selection.
Fungal, Chemical, and Fire Resistance of PVDF Foams and Polymers
By Ron Partridge
Covering exposed surfaces with PVDF polymer provides a high-purity “inert” surface which does not support the growth of microorganisms and provides the resistance needed to withstand the harsh chemicals used for cleaning and sterilization.
VOC Management -- EPA's Dual System
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
For more than two decades, scientists have attempted to measure and model the relationship between ozone formation and emission of VOCs.
Point of View: Commitment to Workplace Health & Safety
By Scott Lawson, M.S.
When trying to effect a change in the culture of your organization, it is important to identify your core values and honor those values in every aspect of your business and services.
It's a Two-edged Sword
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
This column is about management of technological risk. Most value the outcome of successful technical developments. But sometimes their success brings unintended failure.
The “Magnificent Seven”
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
This column is not about that popular movie from the 1950s, but about to what those practicing statistical process control (SPC) are referring when they mention that name.
The Expert Witness
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
At some point your business will likely be a party to a legal disagreement in which technology – possibly even cleaning technology – is an issue. At least once in your career, you may need an expert witness.
Cleaning Up on the Internet - a Snapshot
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
Useful sites on a variety of topics including patents, blogs, R&D.
Health Effects of Cleaning Chemicals, Part 2: Why Exposure Regulations are Necessary
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
This month's column concludes a short refresher about industrial hygiene in critical cleaning.
Health Effects of Cleaning Chemicals, Part I: What You Should Know, But Hopefully Not By Experience
By John B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.
Thia column and the next are a quick review of industrial hygiene—about how the human body can defend itself against bodily contact with hazardous chemicals and what happens when it doesn't.
Cleaning, Contamination Control, and Lean Manufacturing
By Barbara Kanegsberg, Ed Kanegsberg
There may be advantages to applying the principles of lean manufacturing to cleaning, contamination control, and surface quality and to extending those principles so that they are adopted at companies that precede the final manufacturing facility.