Key Points for Cleanroom Renovation

How can small-scale production operations renovate and upgrade existing spaces within a limited budget to meet process requirements?

 1. Process Equipment

• Required environmental conditions (cleanliness level, temperature, humidity);
• Total area (operating area plus maintenance aisles);
• Height and width (clearance for entry passages and clearance for installing lifts);
• Weight (load-bearing capacity of the existing building structure).

• Water quality supplied to the building;
• Laboratory waste discharge;
• High-purity water (RODI, WFI, distilled water);
• Vacuum, CDA (clean dry air);
• Gases and chemicals (hazardous and high-purity);
• Process exhaust;
• Electrical power (available voltage, reliability, and quality).

• Hazardous materials (transport, handling, storage, collection/disposal of waste);
• Separation of personnel flow from chemical/gas flow;
• Site and building accessibility;
• Safety requirements or regulations for hazardous materials in various countries.

• Renovatable or leasable space;
• Laboratory space;
• Laboratory support space (equipment rooms, chemical and gas storage rooms);
• Cleanroom support space (gowning rooms, equipment rooms);
• Cleanroom mechanical space (rooms for recirculating air units [RAU], chillers, humidifiers, water supply, etc.);
• Cleanroom electrical space (electrical rooms, server rooms, IT cabinets, emergency generators);
• Available rooftop space.

• Construction access restrictions;
• Interference with ongoing activities;
• Feasibility of the construction deadline.

The challenge facing mechanical system designers is how to install large air handling units or fans and how to deploy extensive ductwork systems within existing buildings. However, smaller cleanroom facilities can use fan-filter units (FFUs) as the filtration system. As a general rule, if the number of filters does not exceed 20, the fan-filter unit design is less expensive than the more common ducted supply system. Using air conditioning with forced ventilation and fan-filter units can serve as standard HVAC equipment with conventional ductwork. This type of ductwork does not require sealing treatment to meet pressurization requirements, resulting in lower fabrication and installation costs.

• Adopting fan-filter units offers the following advantages:
• Lower installation cost compared to RAU systems;
• Faster installation than ducted air systems;
• Greater flexibility over time if filter positions need to be changed;
• Lower probability of downtime compared to a single RAU. If one FFU motor fails, airflow is reduced by 5% or less; but if one RAU fan motor fails, airflow is reduced by 100%.

Of course, fan-filter units also have some drawbacks:

• Compared to RAU systems, it is more difficult to achieve precise temperature and humidity control;
• Higher power consumption due to the use of multiple 0.5-horsepower motors;
• Higher noise levels, although in recent fan-filter products, the motor noise issue has been significantly improved;
• Higher maintenance costs and longer maintenance times.

Suzhou Pharma Machinery Co.,Ltd.

2026/09/07

Gino