Cleanroom-dryroom-cleanliness room
What’s the difference?

Cleanrooms are essentially about one principle: control. And that is the control of impurities (contamination) in the air. This can be dust, aerosols, microorganisms or even moisture. However, the assessment of cleanliness does not necessarily have to follow the standards DIN EN ISO 14644, VDI 2083 or the GMP guidelines, which define critical particle sizes in cleanrooms. There are high-quality products and processes that may and even must deviate from these standards. And this is exactly where cleanliness rooms and dryrooms come into play.

The CLEANROOM
Cleanrooms may only contain a maximum quantity of particles of a certain size per cubic meter of air. The cleaner the room, the better its cleanliness class. Purity of the air is achieved by sophisticated air and filter technology, airlock systems and special materials, clothing and cleaning, and is checked at regular intervals. Cleanrooms are primarily used in research and in the manufacture and processing of highly sensitive products (including in the pharmaceutical and medical technology, food, biotechnology, optics and microelectronics industries).

The CLEANLINESS ROOM
For some products, it is not just the particle size and quantity, but also their composition that poses a risk to quality. Inorganic or metallic particles with a size of 20 µm or more in particular can significantly damage the function of manufactured components and cause massive quality losses. This applies above all to production processes in the automotive industry. For example coating and painting as well as the manufacture of gearboxes or injection systems.

Cleanliness rooms offer the ideal conditions for these processes. They are not as strictly defined in terms of cleanliness as cleanrooms, but guarantee the constant cleanliness of the products in accordance with the VDA 19 guideline through suitable design and control of the production conditions (including temperature and humidity, personnel, material flow).

The DRYROOM
Dryrooms are cleanrooms with a very special additional feature: their relative humidity must be constantly below the humidity of their surroundings. The humidity level can often even be continuously adjusted downwards. Where are dryrooms used? Wherever materials react strongly with moisture. A typical example of this is the production of battery cells, which corrode even at the lowest levels of humidity.

Published: October 2024