[labnetwork] Cleanroom garments - Costs escalating

[Mark Crain]

Hi Vince,

Cleanroom suit maintenance can be expensive but we made a compromise that I
think worked well by buying our suits and setting up our own laundry
system.  We collected water from our DI water system in a poly drum ( to
keep it isolated from our DI water system) and ran a pneumatically driven
pump to pump the water to a high end home SS clothes washer. We started
with special cleanroom gown detergent but you may find alternatives.
Boots are washed separately from gowns and hoods.  We went through detail
trials with a particle counter to see if we could keep the particle count
as low as a new suit and it worked well. We continued to use the particle
counter from time to time (over years) to see if our cleaning was still
effective.  Cleanroom maintenance for laundry and general cleaning was
typically done by undergraduate work studies and was a great way to
introduce them to the cleanroom world.  If they were good at cleaning
spinner bowls, they learned to fab!

We never did any analysis on bacteria or ion contamination but it would be
something that I would consider if I did it again.

Best Regards

Mark
Mark Crain



On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 8:58 AM, Luciani, Vincent (Fed) <
Vincent.Luciani at nist.gov> wrote:

> Hello LabNetwork,
>
>
>
> A new problem has come up for us and we have not been able to resolve the
> issue with the vendor.  The contractor is adamant in discarding and
> charging us for stained or damaged garments at a startling frequency.  The
> cost associated with this have become prohibitively expensive and prominent
> on my radar screen.
>
> I now have an opportunity to rethink that arrangement which is a fleeting
> opportunity for me simply due to the bureaucracy and lead time associated
> with the government acquisition requirements.
>
>
>
> Current practice:
>
> Our cleanroom is class 100 and since our beginning (10 years ago),  we
> have gone the conventional route of contracting with a vendor to supply and
> launder our Gore-Tex garments (bunny suits, hoods, booties, frocks).
> Currently, we collect all garments every Friday so users get a fresh set
> weekly.  We have about 100 different users weekly so swap out about 100
> hoods/suits/booties per week.
>
>
>
> So, I will take this opportunity to reach out to the collective wisdom of
> the LabNetwork to see how others have contained the costs of cleanroom
> garments.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Vince
>
>
>
>
>
> Vincent K. Luciani
>
> NanoFab Manager
>
> Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology <http://www.cnst.nist.gov/>
>
> National Institute of Standards and Technology
>
> 100 Bureau Drive, MS 6201
>
> Gaithersburg, MD 20899-6200 USA
>
> +1-301-975-2886 <(301)%20975-2886>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> labnetwork mailing list
> labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
> https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mtl.mit.edu/pipermail/labnetwork/attachments/20170515/32dcfaba/attachment.html>