Lab Equipment for Clean Rooms and Critical Environment

There are some facets of medicine, industry and scientific research where there is a need for an environment as completely free as possible of any outside pollutants or substances that could bring in unwanted factors or variables to whatever procedure is being investigated, developed or operated on.

For this purpose, laboratories with critical environments called 'clean rooms' have been developed. There are a huge variety of types of facilities and apparatus and clothing designed and available for a very wide range of research and control laboratories. Cole-Parmer stocks the equipment you need for a clean room as well as all the usual laboratory equipment and all the glassware you require.

A clean room's level of contamination has to be a controlled one, with a specified level of contamination, which is the number of particles per cubic meter. For instance, the air in a typical urban street contains approximately 35,000,000 particles per cubic meter.

An ISO 1 clean room may have no particles at all of a size above 0.5 microns, and only 12 particles per cubic meter or smaller than that.

The critical environments developed may be as large as a whole huge factory premises manufacturing sensitive foods or materials, biotechnology, electronic technology, medicines, or they can be as small as a pre-term baby's incubator. Obviously, the degree of sterility will vary greatly.

Some 'clean rooms' may be moderate, such as an ICU hospital ward where all instruments and equipment is sterilized but protective clothing may be limited to a face mask and sterile gloves. In an operating theater, sterile gowns, foot and head coverings are usually added. The room is generally isolated from entrance by anyone who is not involved in the actual surgery or medical procedure.

In very critical environments, more sophisticated clothing is sometimes worn, even to the extent of helmets and separate breathing apparatus. Cole-parmer have a range of protective clothing, pro-clean overalls, gloves, head and foot covers, and masks to prevent contamination.

Everything inside the clean room is sterilized and/or decontaminated. Even cleaning materials and tools are specialized for use inside the controlled environment, and kept sterile. Cole-Parmer supply all the necessary specialized cleaning agents, mops and brushes you need. Airflow, filtration, air pressure, humidity and temperature are generally also controlled.

The entrances and exits are where the highest precautions are normally taken, with a 'gray room' where clothing is changed before entering a vacuum chamber, air lock, or air shower, where even the sterile clothing is decontaminated before entrance into the clean room itself. Cole-Parmer provide extremely useful layered adhesive-coated mats that capture dirt and dust so you don't track it into the clean room. When the top layer is dirty, you peel that layer off to expose a fresh surface underneath.

As you can see, there is a whole industry devoted to the production of conditions for sterility and decontamination, ranging from architecture, building and engineering, to protective clothing manufacture, as well as machinery, apparatus, tools and equipment. You will find most of the apparatus and equipment you need at Cole-Parmer specialists.

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Don't Forget Cooling For Server Rooms in Summer

In any enclosed environment where there are a lot of computers being used, including server rooms, the temperature is critical. All of the equipment has a maximum temperature at which they can operate anything above this and their efficiency is reduced or thermal shut down takes place. So it is important that server rooms are kept at a stable temperature. But it is also important that humidity, which can be a problem, is controlled at the same time.

So what this means it some kind of air conditioning is provided to the room so that a constant temperature can be maintained no matter what the conditions outside are like. Plus it needs to dehumidify the room to allow removal of any excess humidity.

The size of the air conditioning system used in a server room should be of a capacity that can cope not only removing the heat generated by the computer equipment in the room but also natural heat energy. Also as this equipment is in use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week it must be a unit that has been designed with a continuous rating rather than those that are used for domestic use and will only be used infrequently.

When it comes to choosing the right air conditioner there are two types on the market available. There is the portable or monoblock air conditioner or the fixed split air conditioner systems.

As their name suggests portable air conditioners are self contained units that you just place into the server room. These extract not just heat but a lot of the additional humidity from a room by drawing it down a flexible type of hose similar to that found on a tumble drier measuring 125mm in diameter typically. The open end of this hose will need to be vented outside of the room through either a window that is open or creating a hole in a wall through which the hose can be placed.

Every portable is the same in that there are none which are totally self contained so they don't have a vent pipe, the heat collected must be extracted somewhere. Each flexible hose is normally around 2 to 2.5m in length which cannot be extended as the hose does radiate some heat back into the room and if you use a longer hose then more of this heat will end up straight back into the room which you are trying to cool. So lowering the effectiveness of its cooling abilities.

Also if the hose stretches beyond a certain length there is a possibility of the buildup of back pressure which will prevent the hot air from escaping. This results in the thermal cut out in the conditioner being tripped so stopping the process of cooling. As you are sending hot air down the hose it is important that plenty of fresh air is able to enter the room from another source such as a vent, window or door to balance everything out.

In operation terms the portable models are much the same as the fixed air conditioning systems. They come with fully automatic thermostatic controls to allow you to adjust the temperature up or down to suit the application where being used. However, what you will find is that most portable air conditioners are not provided with a sophisticated timing system.

When it comes to fixed air conditioners these normally consist of two parts. Within the server room it a unit mounted high on a wall which is then connected by a chord to an outside unit which carries power and refrigerant between the two. Not only does this tend to be a lot quieter but more efficient when in operation.

What the indoor unit does is re-circulates the same air so you don't require any kind of external ventilation, so making these units cool the room more efficiently. In most cases the unit situated outside will either be mounted on a bracket on the ground or on a wall.

There are self install systems available that come with pre-charged refrigerant chords that have a very easy connection on them to allow the internal and external units to be joined together. Generally the maximum length that these chords run to is between 4 and 5 meters which cannot be extended. If you do need a longer chord then you will need to arrange to have your air conditioning system professionally installed. Remember it is against the law for any system which requires venting of refrigerant pipes into the atmosphere. So you will need to employ the services of an approved contractor like you would use a CORGI registered professional to install gas equipment.

Every self install air conditioning system today comes with a remote control feature which allows the units to be turned on and off at certain times of the day should there be a necessity to do so. Also they allow you to automatically control the temperature.

If you have started thinking about fixed split air conditioners or portable air conditioners and cannot decide which one would work for you then DIO are more than happy to offer you advice in relation to air conditioning applications for your server room. As well as being able to calculate what your cooling requirements are we can advise you on the installation as well as the supply of both portable and fixed air conditioners that suit your needs and your budget.

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