Staff at the hospital enter and exit the cleanroom through airlocks and are required to wear cleanroom suits before entering. Air blows into the room through HEPA filters to maintain a particulate-free environment, which also has to be maintained at a positive pressure so that in the event of a leak, air would leak out of the chamber, preventing unfiltered air from entering and contaminating surgeries.
Two differential pressure points are located inside and just outside, which need to be continually monitored, and the cleanroom’s ambient temperature also has to be recorded. In the event of equipment failures, such as when the HEPA filters become clogged or plugged, or the blower system goes down, contaminants quickly enter and remain in the room, forcing a halt to surgeries until maintenance is carried out.
To detect these failures immediately and preserve the room’s integrity, hospital management began searching for a general-purpose wireless datalogging solution to record general environmental measurements. They chose CAS Dataloggers, based in Chesterland, Ohio, as their supplier, which has installed three Accsense A1-01a wireless environmental data logger pods to monitor the room’s ambient temperature and pressure, along with an Accsense B1-06 wireless data logger gateway with built-in 10/100BaseT Ethernet to enable connection between the pods’ data and the Internet.
The firm also supplied four Dwyer E1-36 pressure transducers to monitor the differential pressure inside and outside the surgery cleanroom.
The general-purpose sensor pods enable continual monitoring of the cleanroom’s pressure and temperature as they are equipped with external 4–20mA and 0–5V inputs as well as internal ambient temperature, humidity, light and vibration sensors.
Additionally, the Accsense wireless monitoring and alarming system provides the hospital with cloud-based data storage and reporting for hassle-free monitoring. Once connected to the wireless gateway, the pods monitor and log the pressure and temperature data, giving staff the ability to view and remotely access their data in real-time.
CAS Dataloggers says the hospital is now able constantly to maintain its differential pressure and ambient temperature. Staff are immediately contacted when vital parameters suddenly go out of specification, eliminating delays between equipment failure and staff response. This has greatly improved surgery safety conditions and ensures the integrity of the cleanroom and the hospital’s safety procedures.
