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Simplifying Set-Up of Plastics Clean-Rooms
Hybrid Cleanrooms are typically installed to minimize
costs or to adapt to building design constraints. The cost
to build, run and maintain true cleanroom conditions can
be high and so the smaller they are, the less they cost
and the easier it is to maintain the necessary
cleanliness. Hybrid rooms are designed so that most of the
particulate-generating equipment is kept outside the clean
environment. Polymer dryers, blenders, and vacuum
conveyers, for instance, would be installed outside and
plumbed or connected to processing equipment inside the
cleanroom. Thus, standard equipment can be spec’d without
cleanliness concerns. In some cases, even the processing
machines operate outside of the room and only molded or
extruded components enter the room under controlled
conditions for final processing. This arrangement can pose
a design and installation challenge but considerable money
can be saved by not having to buy or maintain special
equipment.
PEACE OF MIND
Conair has used the MedLine trade name previously to cover
downstream extrusion equipment designed especially for
producing precision tubing including multi-lumen heart and
brain catheters. Now the registered trademark has been
extended to encompass the full range of medical
auxiliaries, including not only downstream extrusion, but
also material-handling, drying, blending/feeding and
heat-transfer equipment.
In all, Conair offers over 40 models across the five
equipment families with 170 fully configurable variations
to match the complexity of the environment and/or
regulatory standards.
Machines are factory calibrated to meet regulatory
requirements, labeled and certified. Installation
qualification forms are supplied, ready to be filled out
and filed. Preventive maintenance procedures required for
regulatory compliance are also detailed and reporting
forms are provided. This documentation significantly
reduces the paperwork processors typically need to
generate in order to validate compliance of their
cleanroom facilities and processes.
Besides the mechanical and finishing features like
non-ferrous fittings, powder coating of cabinets,
stainless-steel components, HEPA filters and
chemical-resistant HMI screens, many MedLine products also
have control and data-gathering capabilities that are
indispensable to clean-room operation and documentation.
For instance, a Material Vision Proofing or MVP system
provides critical verification in central resin
distribution systems. The Drying Monitor 3 delivers early
alert notification should drying conditions drift beyond
critical set-points. Blenders can be equipped with SQL
data-gathering packages and the FLX conveying control has
an alarm history log.
What the MedLine label signifies to the medical plastics
industry is peace-of-mind. When a processor selects a
piece equipment with a MedLine label on it, whether it is
designed from the ground up for cleanroom applications or
it is a part of a standard product line, they can be sure
it has been pre-evaluated, pre-configured, pre-calibrated
and is suitable to meet the requirements necessary for
compliance with applicable standards.
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