“You wouldn't believe the amount of waste that is happening.” This is the biggest takeaway from the conversation with Blake Hodess, the CEO of US-based Hodess Cleanrooms.
Hodess is a well-established expert in cleanroom design and build firm that works on many large cleanroom projects across many sectors.
My goal is not to be a company that says, oh, you know, I have this one clean wall and ceiling solution, so I'm going to use it every time
Prioritising sustainability in cleanroom design is a tactic that can be a win-win for all involved in most sectors. Speaking to the CEO Blake reveals what he believes are some easy misses in this arena and how he has refined his company’s design.
Starting out in cleanrooms
Before buying his father out of his company, Blake was introduced to cleanrooms by a VP at another company called Bob McNamara: “When I went to interview, he said, You know what a cleanroom is? I said, Nope. And he said, well, you see that roll of plans over there? That’s a 150 pound roll of plans. He said, take it home and study because cleanrooms are the future. We're going to be the number one guys in cleanrooms. You need to know how to build one.”
Blake explains that over the next few years, in the 1980s, he was then involved with Raytheon’s new facility, and the BAE System centre for excellence. Both important microelectronics projects with huge learnings to be had. “We built the building, the waffle slabs we put in the cleanrooms, the air conditioning, the DI water systems, wastewater treatment systems, all the process piping, you know, CDA too,” he recalls.
The rooms were so clean that the particle counters were reading zeros, so they shut the fans down now
So with all of this experience on these big projects, Blake took on the mantle of his fathers company, and decided to refine the company’s trajectory. He decided that they were going to focus just on cleanrooms, and even beyond that, not prioritising doing the buildings, just targeting the cleanroom. And that is exactly what they have done for decades.
Not yet a Subscriber?
This is a small extract of the full article which is available ONLY to premium content subscribers. Click below to get premium content on Cleanroom Technology.
Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in here.