EXAIR’s Intellistat Ion Air Gun has achieved a Class 5 Clean room Rating, making it an excellent choice for static elimination in clean room environments where sensitive processes are conducted. Various manufacturing operations, including scientific research, solar panel production, and biotechnology, necessitate adherence to specific cleanliness standards. Consequently, any tools or materials utilized in these processes must comply with these rigorous requirements. The Intellistat from EXAIR has been specifically designed to meet these standards.
The Intellistat Ion Air Gun is a patented handheld device designed for static elimination in sterile environments and clean rooms. This lightweight instrument delivers quick static decay with a brief squeeze of its short-throw trigger, reducing voltage from 5,000 to 500 in less than a second. Enhancing its versatility, the Intellistat has received the ISO 14644-1 Class 5 certification for clean rooms and controlled environments, making it an ideal solution for electronics manufacturing, testing facilities, and laboratories.
The Intellistat product offering is the ideal solution for static elimination in your sensitive processes. Learn more about the Intellistat as well as the rest of EXAIR’s large line of static elimination products at www.EXAIR.com or by contacting any of our Application Engineers.
Airborne particles surround us everywhere. In a general work environment, nearly four million particles per cubic foot are floating around us at any given time. When an air compressor brings in this air, the concentration increases substantially. So, compressed air is not only expensive to make, but very dirty. As the air exits your air compressor and travels into your pneumatic system, there is so much contamination, that the International Standard Organization, ISO, created an Air Quality chart with Purity Classes.
This chart is easy to follow and can be found on the International Organization for Standardization; ISO 8573-1 for Air Quality. It is used to select a cleanliness level for your compressed air system. Contamination is categorized into three areas; Particles, Water, and Oil (reference above). Each class is associated with a number for each category ranging from 0 (most stringent) to 9 (most relaxed). As an example, the Air Quality value of ISO 8573-1:2010 [1.2.4] has Class 1 for Particles, Class 2 for Water, and Class 4 for Oil. These class values will show the maximum value in each category.
To define the categories in more detail, I will separate the three to discuss the origins and solutions.
Per the descriptions above, here are the criteria by which compressed air purity is classified.
Particles: For solid particles, this part comes from many different areas. The surrounding ambient air that is being drawn into the air compressor is filtered, but the intake filter will only remove large diameter particles. The smaller diameter particles will go through the filter and into the compressed air system. Another part is rust particles that come from steel air pipes and receiver tanks. Over time, rust will flake off and create particles that can affect pneumatic equipment. Other particles can come from components inside the air compressor, valves, etc., that wear and breakdown. In the ISO column for Particles, it is separated into three different micron ranges and concentrations. The removal of particles from the compressed air is done by traps and compressed air filters. EXAIR offers two types; Filter Separators with 5-micron filtration and Oil Removal Filters with 0.03-micron filtration. There are other types of filtration systems depending on your ISO requirement.
Water: Humidity is a natural occurrence. It can be measured as a dew point temperature. This is the temperature at which water will condense and make rain. Inside an air compressor, the air is ‘squeezed”, and the amount of space for water vapor is reduced. So, it will condense into liquid form as “rain” inside the pipes. Air that comes out from an air compressor will always be saturated with water. To remove liquid water, a mechanical device can be used. Inside a Filter Separator, a centrifugal separator will spin the air and remove the liquid water. To remove water vapor, a compressed air dryer is required, like a refrigerant, desiccant, deliquescent, or membrane type. Each type will have a maximum dew point range that they can reach. As an example, a refrigerant type will reduce the dew point to 37oF (3oC). That means that water will not condense until the temperature reaches below 37oF (3oC).
Oil: This category can be found as a liquid, aerosol or vapor, and it includes more than just oil. It contains small hydrocarbons like CO, CO2, SO2, and NOX. Oil mainly comes from inside an oil-flooded air compressor. As the air passes through the compressor, it will pick up remnants of oil aerosols and carry them downstream. With high temperatures inside the air compressor, some of the oil will vaporize. Even with oil-less type air compressors, carbon vapor can still be an issue. Small hydrocarbons can come through the air intake and condense inside the system like water vapor above. To remove the liquid and aerosol type of oil, Oil Removal Filters can be used. They are designed to “coalesce” the small particles into larger particles for gravity to remove. Oil vapor requires activated carbon to remove it. These types of filter units will adsorb the vapor. This helps to remove odors as well as dangerous chemical vapors that may be in the compressed air line.
There are a variety of pneumatic systems that use the ISO 8573-1 standard. This will include breathing air operations, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and the electronics industry. If you need stringent requirements for your compressed air system, the Air Quality standard should be used by referring to the class numbers above. This helps to dictate the types of filtration and air dryers that should be used within your pneumatic system. If you have any questions about your compressed air system, an Application Engineer at EXAIR will be happy to help you.
EXAIR’s Intellistat Ion Air Gun and Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle have both earned a Class 5 Clean room Rating making them ideal for static elimination in clean rooms for sensitive processes. There are manufacturing processes that require certain cleanliness standards for operation, such as scientific research, solar panel manufacturing or biotechnology industries. This means that any tool or material you use in this process has to meet a certain standard. EXAIR’s Intellistat was engineered to do just that.
8505 Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle
8500 Intellistat Ion Air Gun
The Intellistat Ion Air Gun is a patented handheld air gun for static elimination in sterile environments and clean rooms. This lightweight tool provides rapid static decay with a simple squeeze of a short-throw trigger reducing 5,000 volts to 500 in under second. Furthering the Intellistat’s utility, it has now been awarded the ISO 14644-1 Class 5 rating for clean rooms and controlled environments making it the perfect tool for electronics manufacturing, testing facilities and laboratories.
Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle: The Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle boasts the same abilities as the Intellistat ion air gun above, however this system comes on an easily adjustable bracket to aim and lock into place for hands off operation. It’s also been awarded the ISO 14644-1 Class 5 rating for clean rooms and controlled environments making it the perfect tool for electronics manufacturing, testing facilities and laboratories.
The Intellistat product offering is the ideal solution for static elimination in your sensitive processes. Learn more about the Intellistat’s as well as the rest of EXAIR’s large line of static elimination products at www.EXAIR.com or by contacting any of our Application Engineers.
The number of clean room certifications are vast and vary tremendously. ISO 14644 is the most used standard when looking at electronics and pharma manufacturing controlled environments. With this popularity, it has also undergone revisions within the past five years.
No matter the standard, each is divided into classes. The classes are rated from 1 to 9. The class identifies the maximum limit for particulate size and quantity per cubic meter of air. The chart below showcases the size and the quantity breakdown.
Cleanroom Classification Allowable Maximums.
ISO 9 as you can see is the loosest standard. This standard is equivalent to air quality within a city environment. These environments can fit a multitude of manufacturing and are some of the easiest to achieve and abide by. The opposite end of the spectrum, ISO 1 is the strictest and hardest to maintain. There are three main factors when designing for a clean room. These are surfaces, airflow, and employee access.
When selecting surfaces that will be within the environment it is best to choose a surface that will hold up to the level of use as well as not be damaged by the cleaners or solvents being used to ensure the surface is clean. This should carry over into part fixturing and even machine materials of construction as well. This is not always easy and should be a design element to the process and environment.
Airflow within the room is what helps maintain the concentration levels of particulates. Generally, a clean room is positively pressurized to where the pressure within the room is higher than that outside of the room. This results in a positive air exchange, generally this is provided by the HVAC system. Having a system that does not recirculate the air from inside of the room and a substantial filtration system is key. Another type of airflow that can be found within these environments is a blowoff operation for the part or process. When installing a blowoff within a clean room environment it should be confirmed that the materials of construction are compatible with the environment and cleaning processes and that the airflow will not be introducing particulate into the environment which can result in contamination.
Lastly, employee access should be limited to those employees who are trained and necessary to be within the environment. Sometimes if an employee wears the wrong type of deodorant it can effect an entire environment. Even the wrong type of clothing or soap can alter the state of an environment, let alone using a blowoff incorrectly or bringing the incorrect cleaner inside the cleanroom. Access to these areas should be limited and individuals should be well trained to meet the demands of the clean room.
If you would like to discuss your production environment or blowoff application within a clean room, please contact us.
