Medical Device Cleanroom Construction Part 1: Walls and Installation

Modular Cleanrooms for Medical Devices

A hardwall cleanroom for medical device manufacturing requires precision at every intersection, seam, and gap. Erecting the wall system is relatively simple for those inclined, however, the integration of HVAC, electrical, plumbing, flooring, and entry/exit concepts require thoughtful consideration. 

This guide provides a step by step walkthrough along the cleanroom construction process. You’ll learn about various components, installation, and other features.

In any case, this post does not constitute a suggestion for your facility. Medical device cleanroom construction always benefits from facility-specific advice and expertise. We offer free quotes, which include our cleanroom and engineering services from planning to final install. Just answer a few questions about your cleanroom needs and you’ll hear back from us in 1 – 2 business days.

Assessing Construction Options

modular cleanroom install is non-intrusive, low noise, and low particulate by nature. Unlike stick-built construction, where walls and frames require onsite cutting and fabrication, a modular system is cut to fit from the factory.

In most cases, the cleanroom wall panel installation requires a three person team: two people fit and install the panels while a third person stages components and keeps the workspace clean. Small teams reduce foot traffic, reduce standby time, and minimize the disruptive nature of construction.

A cleanroom install is feasible for a cleanroom experienced general contractor, but often challenging. Any small changes or iterations require longer communication chains and wait times for revised blueprints, further component sourcing, or late evolving modifications.

General contractors require subcontractors, thus customers often have greater difficulty sorting out accountability between contractors, especially amidst finger-pointing and scheduling conflicts. Every cleanroom construction on a large scale requires the co-working of unique and specialized teams. The advantage of work done by a cleanroom specialized installer is that the final performance is never left to chance.

Building Essentials

Cleanroom HVAC Configuration

Single Pass Design

Recirculating Design

Negative Pressure

Softwall Containment

At this stage of the build, the cleanroom configuration is rather ambiguous. More obvious is the size and capacity of the air system. Cleanrooms require high volumes of air usually supplied by roof-mounted HVAC systems. Previously, we’ve covered the advantages of modular fan filter unit designs over traditional air handling unit systems.

The left side of the center divide will later become the cleaning and packaging area. In the back left corner of the image, you'll notice a rather large opening in the wall structure which will serve as a vestibule for exiting finished products.
Each downward vent stems from a roof-mounted HVAC system. Medical device manufacturing cleanrooms require a lot of air, partitioned bays, and well-calibrated positive pressure air systems.

The air induction stems feed the cleanroom’s plenum and ceiling integrated fan filter units. Above, you’ll notice that the HVAC ducting includes multiple “fingers” which stem perpendicularly out from the main ducting system. These fingers each connect to a unique inlet in the cleanroom ceiling. 

The ISO 7 classification is a gold standard for non-critical medical device production, in this case, a device for immunotherapy cell production.

Floor Tracks & Panel Installation

The raw construction materials arrive on pallets. A floor track is the first construction element. Because a forklift is required at later stages to set ceiling beams, the floor must leave exit and entry points for equipment, pallet jacks, or other lifting equipment. 

Laying the floor track is often one of the more challenging parts of the installation. Uneven flooring is common. It’s critical that the wall track installation holds flat and straight. Warp causes fitment issues, and thus panels may require slight modification for a flush installation. 

This wall gap creates space for an air return. The floor track is cut on-site, but each wall panel at this intersection is already specified in the blueprint, hence the floor track requires a custom cut, but the panel section does not.

Sandwich Wall Panel Construction

In the above images, we can see how each panel arrives in various cuts and frame sizes. 

The wall system fits together much like a numbered puzzle. On the right, we see panels with pre-installed cleanroom windows. Unlike stick-built construction, a specialized vendor is not required for sourcing and installing windows, doors, walls, or partitions.

These sandwich-style panels feature a vinyl exterior finish and polystyrene core for insulation. Each panel is pre-cut at the factory to different dimensions.

Fire & Sound Panels

CleanPro® Cleanroom Wall Panels

Our best-selling wall panels are cost-effective option for many cleanroom applications. An outer gypsum layer helps it achieve a Class A non-combustible rating, over a polystyrene core, with vinyl, steel, aluminum, or FRP surfaces.

Cleanroom Walls and Ceiling Beams

Ceiling beams attach to the aluminum anodized frame with factory specified hardware. These beams will eventually support the corrugated ceiling, lighting grid, and integration of the pharmaceutical-grade fan filter units. Fan filter units are the heaviest part of the ceiling assembly (besides the beams), each weighing 30 – 40 lbs. This design supports a ceiling grid of any specification, even if it requires 100% fan filter coverage or increased units at a later date.

Cleanroom Wall Air Chases

Return air chases allow the recirculation and exhaust of dirty cleanroom air. Here we see the square cutouts within the factory panels. These cutouts receive grill vents at a later stage in the build. The more input air required, the more exit air. 

In previous posts, we’ve outlined how air change rates and air flow patterns influence cleanroom performance and filtration design.

The production side of the cleanroom needs significantly more air chase cutouts to support ISO 7 airflow. This side of the cleanroom will also have a greater density of fan filter units per sq. ft. to achieve an effective air flow rate.

On the packaging side of the cleanroom, the walls require far fewer air chases. The ISO 8 packaging cleanroom will require roughly 10 times fewer air changes per hour than the more critical processing side.

Primary ISO 7 Medical Device Processing Area

Above, we see a wide view of the ISO 7 production area in its initial stages. Palletized panels await unpackaging for the construction of the interior gowning and locker room walls. In the foreground, the floor track outlines the final containment wall placement.

Cleanroom Windows & View Panels

Integrated windows allow wide-set views of production areas from outside the cleanroom. There are a couple of different reasons for the choice of wide view window sequences, usually, a combination of aesthetics, light levels, and observation requirements. In other production environments, customers may opt for insulated, impact-resistant, flush, or UV filtered window designs.

Double Flush Window

CleanPro® Cleanroom Windows

Our windows provide a range of solutions to reveal cleanroom operation status, current capacity, enhance supervision, and ensure collision-free entry and exit.

Overview

By the next week, the full containment structure of the primary production room and post-processing rooms are complete. In the next portion of this post, we’ll cover the specific floor plan layout and partitions required.

In medical device cleanrooms, a common configuration is an ISO 8 gowning room and ISO 7 primary production area. A cascading air flow design and positive pressure HVAC calibration move the cleanest air at the highest pressure (ISO 7).

Benefits of a CleanPro® Cleanroom Installation

There are a few reasons why PAC’s cleanroom design specialists get projects done faster with fewer phone calls, fewer emails, and fewer headaches. A PAC cleanroom installation includes final testing that meets all performance benchmarks and building codes, guaranteed. The entire project, from initial engineering and components to final installation and performance validation fall under a single point of contact.

Building a Cleanroom?

CleanPro® is a trusted ally of enterprises, research facilities, and government agencies. We draft, design, schedule, and deliver production ready cleanrooms.

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Mitch Walleser

Mitch Walleser

Mitch is a contributing writer for Production Automation Corporation. PAC is a factory-direct distributor of products and environmental solutions for industrial and critical requirements within electronics, medical device, life science, pharmaceutical, and general manufacturing industries. Mitch has worked with manufacturing engineers, in-house specialists, and factory experts to highlight and uncover manufacturing solutions. His background includes 3D printing, electronics, and cleanroom manufacturing.

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