The selection of flooring

Floors and flooring systems must be able to withstand the roughest treatment of any structural component in a cleanroom. Kathrin Kutter, Market Segment Manager Industry, nora systems, Germany, looks at criteria for their selection.

Contamination control is critical to ensure product quality is maintained and research work is a success in controlled environments. But the diversity of cleanroom use requires a careful selection of production equipment and materials. Materials with the lowest possible potential for contamination should be chosen at the early stages of the cleanroom planning procedure and this is particularly important for the selection of floorings.

When choosing floorings, it is necessary to take account of the whole production process during cleanroom planning procedures and to define the specific requirements of floorings to meet the needs of these individual processes.¹

The internationally accredited regulations ISO 14644 and GMP guidelines offer initial indications for the selection of cleanroom-suitable materials. To comply with ISO 14644-4, for instance, surfaces such as floorings should have low particle emission behaviour and a non-porous surface. They need to be anti-slip and able to withstand dynamic loads. Floors also need to be resistant to any process media, cleaning agents and disinfectants. In addition, they need to offer appropriate ESD protection properties.²

The GMP guidelines add to this specification the requirement for a smooth, dense surface without cracks or open joints, and easy but effective cleaning and disinfection properties.³

The requirements of floorings or surfaces as stipulated in the ISO or GMP guidelines can be regarded only as a first approach to selecting the most suitable material. The differentiation between cleanroom and cleanliness suitability of materials as stipulated in the soon-to-be-published VDI 2083-17 (draft) offers additional approaches.