The pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries are adopting a new “slimmer” pipe insulation that can reduce cleanroom size requirements and eliminate downtime costs, argues T-Tubes.
In some respects, the insulation traditionally used in cleanroom manufacturing is like those 1980s-era cellular phones: clunky and somewhat prone to performance problems. But then, of course, the conventional open-celled polyethylene foam insulation used in cleanrooms dates back to the 1980s or earlier.
The problems with those cumbersome insulation designs become pronounced in the manufacturing cleanroom environment, where thousands of feet of fairly narrow reactor piping form a congested maze of plumbing, once the insulation has been installed. A half-inch (½”; 12.70mm) line with 3” (7.62cm) insulation becomes a hefty 6.5” (16.5cm) in diameter. When you consider the multitude of lines in the typical manufacturing cleanroom, it is no wonder the space gets crowded.
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