How To Clean and Maintain a Clean Room Environment

Previously, only highly technical industries—such as aerospace, medical, and pharmaceuticals—used clean rooms, which are essentially controlled environments for intense industry-specific work. However, today, numerous industries—including industrial and manufacturing—take advantage of what clean rooms can offer. While clean rooms differ in their appearances and purposes, it’s always crucial to follow best practices to keep them contaminant-free. In this guide, you will learn how to clean and maintain a clean room environment for your company.

Keep the Correct Humidity and Temperature

Concentrating on ideal climate conditions will allow you to keep your clean room in the best possible condition. For example, bacteria, corrosion, and static electricity are typical concerns, but maintaining low humidity—around 30 to 40 percent—and a 70°F ( 21°C) temperature will prevent these issues. Optimal humidity and temperatures will also keep your staff cool and comfortable. This will prevent sweat, which naturally contaminates the air. Further, be sure your HVAC control system receives routine maintenance, as you want to ensure it satisfies all facility-specific requirements.

Finally, frequently assess air quality by sampling the air with air samplers or settle plates. Air samplers are devices that collect air and easily determine the types of particles present in the space. Settle plates, on the other hand, attract particles and obtain similar results.

Focus on Furniture and Keep Walls Clear

In addition to your clean room’s climate, prioritize its furnishings and overall layout. Invest in quality furniture pieces, such as robust chairs and tables. Furniture type and condition play an essential role in cleanliness. Furniture placement is also key; strategically place equipment and furniture in ways where your facility can maintain sufficient airflow. For safety’s sake, you want to keep furniture away from doors and keep pathways accessible and clear. When it comes to your clean room’s walls, you want to keep those bare as well. Avoid posting particle-shedding papers, sticky notes, or other items on the walls.

Prioritize the Appropriate Supplies

Of course, your facility needs office supplies to perform their best work—think notepads, sticky notes, pens, and similar items. Shockingly, these items are contamination culprits, though. You don’t want to move these back and forth between your clean room and regular working environment. Fortunately, you can buy supplies specifically for clean rooms. Just keep in mind, however, that these items must stay inside the clean room and never move elsewhere within your facility. . If you must bring these with you, always clean them before reentering the clean room.

Remember to consider your cleaning supplies as well. Essential cleaning gear, such as brooms, mops, swabs, and wipes, must meet your clean room’s International Standards Organization (ISO) class requirements. Otherwise, if you use the wrong items, you can compromise your clean room’s safety. Like your regular supplies, cleaning supplies must also remain in the clean room at all times.

Finally, even though you must opt for items that are appropriate for clean rooms, you also need to think about their packaging. Consider any supplies that come in cardboard boxes, such as nitrile gloves. This material encourages particulates to enter the air, making it a threat. You also  need to keep particulates in mind when it comes to the other clean room materials you stock. Be especially aware of materials that give off particulates, as these can be popular threats to clean room cleanliness.

Ensure Staff Follow Strict Guidelines

While it may seem like obvious information to your employees, you must remind everyone to follow daily and weekly cleaning processes when they must use your clean room. To keep your clean room pristine, staff should vacuum all surfaces. They must then utilize special cleaning solutions to wipe those surfaces down. The wiping motions must be intentional and in one direction, as too much back and forth creates unnecessary particles. For added security, consider creating a cleaning schedule and having it on hand for your team.

Setting boundaries is crucial to a successful clean room environment as well. After all, even though you can’t control people, individuals can take action to mitigate contaminants. For instance, your staff should keep all food, beverages, and candy outside of this space. Additionally, instruct team members to refrain from applying personal hygiene products—such as makeup and perfume—because these may contaminate the space. Smoking is another common concern due to the tobacco, so dedicate far-away areas to smoke breaks. Employees should also thoroughly shower after they smoke.

Believe it or not, talking can pose a risk for contamination; every time someone opens their mouth, they emit saliva particles—even while wearing a mask. Therefore, you should encourage staff to reduce how often they speak while in the clean room. By keeping conversations short, your facility can prevent hundreds of particles from escaping into the air.

Before your team enters the clean room, they also need the proper attire. Clothes worn in the clean room should not have any lint or loose fibers. Also, all staff should wear personal protective gear—this way, they can reduce the likelihood that contaminants will penetrate into their street clothes. Your team must also slip on each portion of their clean room wardrobe in a specific order that won’t encourage contamination; this procedure is typically referred to as “gowning.”

Now that you know how to maintain cleanliness, how can you be sure the standards and procedures you put into place are appropriate to meet your specific needs and requirements? Clean room manufacturers can provide you with valuable insight into complying with clean room standards and improving your space. And, no doubt, clean room-certified cleaning supplies are an absolute necessity. You can be sure to get all of the antibacterial cleaning supplies you need at Quick Supplies Online. We’re a one-stop shop for cleaning supplies that help ensure your environment is up to standards. We hope that this guide on how to clean and maintain a clean room environment has helped you get on the road to proper clean room maintenance. Visit us online today at Quick Supplies Online for all of your clean room cleaning product needs.