Particle Shedding in Clean Rooms: In an increasingly cleanliness-obsessed world, it’s becoming evident that choices regarding the materials we use have far-reaching impacts. This is particularly true in highly controlled environments like clean rooms, where the importance of minimizing particle shedding is paramount. The question arises as to whether reusable or single-use garments should…
Particle Shedding in Clean Rooms: In an increasingly cleanliness-obsessed world, it’s becoming evident that choices regarding the materials we use have far-reaching impacts. This is particularly true in highly controlled environments like clean rooms, where the importance of minimizing particle shedding is paramount. The question arises as to whether reusable or single-use garments should be employed. Comfortability might initially draw us toward the former, but as David Kreitzere, a controlled environments specialist at Dupont, points out, the allure of comfort might be misleading.
Laundered garments, while comfortable, suffer from large pore sizes. This results in significant particle shedding into the clean room, posing a risk to the sterile environment. In contrast, single-use garments such as Tyvek offer nearly complete particle barriers, maintaining a cleaner environment.
Looking past the initial upfront cost comparison, Kreitzer points out the long-term price equivalence. Interestingly, while laundered garments might seem more economical initially, over time the risk of particle shedding in clean rooms increases with each wash cycle. Furthermore, the logistics of laundry services often involve additional costs like surcharges, lost garment fees, and inflexible contracts.
Conversely, with single-use suits like Tyvek, the costs are known upfront. There are no contractual commitments, no surcharges, and, most importantly, no room for the increased risk of contamination through particle shedding.
With this perspective, the choice seems clearer, balancing the pros and cons between initial cost, cleanliness, and long-term efficiency. Let’s hear more from David Kreitzer, who will guide us further on this topic of controlled environments on the show today.
Video TranscriptExpand ↓
So the benefits in the risk of using reusable versus single use. The biggest benefit of having a laundered garment is the comfortability. So what you're going to find is that these polyester monofilament suits that they are wearing are extremely comfortable. They drape nicely, donning and doffing is quite easy. The downside to that is that when they're manufactured, these polyester monofilaments have very large pore sizes within those suits. Meaning that you can have quite a bit of particulate being shed from the body which we all know is the most important aspect of being in clean room that has that potential of coming through that suit. And the opposite can be held true on the impact of that suit the airflow coming into the suit. So Tyvek in the single use category, has a much smaller pore size. The way our garments are constructed, it is a low lower breathability which again is somewhat of a deterrent to wearing a single use suit. However, The benefits of having that single use suit in the clean room means that we have a one hundred percent barrier of any kind of particles that will be shed or come from that suit into the clean room environment. As I mentioned earlier with the first question, the larger pore sizes within laundered garment, you're gonna find that a bacterial filtration is much lower on these garments. So essentially you've got about a seventy percent BFE or bacterial filtration efficiency. Compare that to our single use TIVAT garment which have a ninety eight point four percent BFE rating. So what does that mean? If within your clean room you're using a HEPA filter more than likely, Within that HEPA filter, you're blocking about ninety nine point nine percent of any particulates that come in and out of that room. My question, I guess, I bring it back to people is why in the world would you put a person in a suit that only protects against seventy percent of any kind of bacterial filtration or or particulates that are out in the field today. TIVET garments, a single use garment, is rated at ninety eight point four percent, which means you're gonna have that extra layer of protection and security while within that controlled environment space. We also have certificates of sterility that are available ten to the minus six I understand that laundry is able to provide those as well which is great. The concern here is that after a series of of wash cycles, sterilization cycles, that laundered garment is going to begin to break down So now your BFE is essentially higher. Your PFE is higher. You're running the risk of getting more particulates out into that space the longer that suit stays in rotation used by the employee in that clean room after it's been laundered and sterilized. Wash cycle after wash cycle after wash cycle. When you have a single use DuPont TIVEC cover all single use garment. You are being assured that each time you open that package, It is sterilized, it is one hundred percent ready to go, and we don't have to worry about cycling garments in and out, in and out. They're always ready to go one hundred percent out of the time out of the package. The the biggest draw to someone getting into a laundry program is going to be the initial cost and they will look at a per change per employee type cost and they will break it down to where that employee will only cost them and I'll use an example of say two dollars per change. That two dollars per change sounds very very appealing. And when you're looking at that cost and then you look at a cost from a single use percents perspective, you may see that I would charge or a distributor would charge six maybe seven dollars per change. So it doesn't necessarily add up as an apples to apples comparison. It's clearly apples to oranges at that point if we wanna use that The difference between those two numbers though, if you were to look at it on a long term perspective, become very even. And the reason I say that is because, yes, I may have a garment that is six or seven dollars per change. The billing cycles come into issue when you start to receive your weekly or monthly invoices from the laundry company. And what you'll find now are surcharges. You're gonna find loss, damage, ruin charges, you're going to be locked into a contract and to get out of that contract, say that you want to get out of the contract or maybe terminate early, there are heavy penalties and fees involved with that because the laundry companies produce these garments ahead of time. They have a heavy investment on the front side, utilizing that contract to keep the costs low. However, those ancillary fees and charges that I mentioned earlier always seem to come up and it is oftentimes in small print where you don't realize the amount of loss and damage. You can also hire a new employee. It may take some time to get that employee sized properly for that garment. Especially if it's a larger employee or a very very small employee. It could be weeks before that employee has any kind of garments enabling them to go into the the clean space. So with DuPont, you get a fixed cost. You know exactly what the cost is going to be each time that employee puts on or dons that garment. That's the key and the benefit here. There are no contracts. It's a single use availability that is unmatched compared to a laundered program. And we try to sit down with a lot of folks and explain to them if you were to add up all of your fees, all of your surcharges. Any kind of loss, damage, or ruin that may happen on that laundered garment, you're gonna find that paying the increased single use fee truly does balance out and you don't have the added worry or headache or hassle of having to have a contract to adhere to.
