18. CFC-CAPTURING CLEANROOM WORKSTATIONS

A. Problem/Issue

A large manufacturer of implantable pacemakers was being mandated by government regulation to eliminate freon in their cleaning operations. They also used freon to expand the lead tubing in order to put the coiled conductor inside. They were faced with over a million dollars and a significant shutdown in order to switch over to non-cfc chemicals in their operations. The new chemicals were more flammable than freon.

B. Analysis

We analyzed all other options and methods of dealing with the volatile fumes resulting from the new chemicals. We looked at local containment and carbon filtering because it offered an option to shutdown/massive re-plumbing of the ceiling of the cleanroom. However, all currently available options did not meet the requirements of the unique nature of the manufacturing process.

C. Solution/Results

We completely designed a custom workstation, hood, microscope hood, filtering module, fan system, and ducting that was also modular. The modular approach was needed to accomodate all of the off-shore production facilities and variations on the process. The new design was documented, prototyped, and validated. VOC "sniffers" and an alarm system were added to each unit to ensure that levels of fumes were not exceeded. The system is now in place in facilities all over the world.