Selection and application of decorative materials for cleanrooms in pharmaceutical engineering

Clean room requirements for decorative materials in interior partitions:

1. The building envelope and interior decoration of the cleanroom should be made of materials with good air tightness and small deformation under changes in temperature and humidity. When additional structural framework and insulation layer are required for wall interior decoration, non-combustible or refractory materials should be used.

2. The surfaces of cleanroom walls and cleanroom ceilings should meet the requirements of being flat, smooth, dust-free, avoiding glare, and easy to remove dust. Concave and convex surfaces should be reduced, the inside and outside corners should be rounded. The joints of the overall structure should be easy to clean.

3. The floor of the cleanroom should meet the requirements of being smooth, wear-resistant, easy to dust and clean, not easy to accumulate static electricity, avoid glare, and have a sense of comfort.

4. Reliable sealing measures should be taken for the structure and construction gaps of cleanroom doors, windows, walls, ceilings, and floors. 

5. The colors in the cleanroom should be light and soft.

Different clean rooms also need to consider different individual needs when selecting interior decoration materials:

1. Clean rooms usually need to be wiped frequently. In addition to wiping with water, they also use disinfectant, alcohol, and other solvents. These liquids usually have certain chemical properties and will cause the surface of some materials to discolor and fall off, which requires decoration. The surface of the material has some chemical resistance.

2. Biological cleanrooms such as operating rooms usually install hydrogen peroxide H2O2 sterilization equipment for sterilization needs; H2O2 is a strong oxidant that will accelerate the oxidation and corrosion of objects in the environment, especially metals, and will also cause general coating surfaces Fading, discoloration due to oxidation. Therefore, this type of cleanroom requires that its decorative materials have good oxidation resistance and will not rust.

In the current design and installation of cleanrooms, there are mainly the following types of clean room wall decoration materials:

1. Color steel panel

Color steel panel is a material widely used in clean factories at present. Its advantages are low price, thermal insulation function, fast production and installation. Therefore, it is widely used in many clean factories with low purification levels.

The disadvantage of color steel panels is also obvious, that is, steel panels are easily oxidized and corroded, especially in humid environments. Once the surface coating of the color steel panel is peeled off by a collision, the exposed steel panel will become a breeding ground for bacteria after being oxidized and rusted. This is very dangerous in a biological cleanroom.

2. Aluminum sandwich panel

Aluminum sandwich panels are currently the most commonly used decorative materials in clean operating rooms. The aluminum sandwich panel is installed with hooks, folded on all four sides, and pasted with gypsum panel and other materials on the back to increase the thickness and strength of the panel.

The main advantages and disadvantages of aluminum panels are as follows:

advantage:

1) Long life

2) Larger divisions

3) Prefabricated type, suitable for installing insulation systems and technical mezzanines

disadvantage:

1) The cost is higher

2) At present, the surface coating of aluminum panels is usually acrylic or polyurethane coating, which has poor corrosion resistance and will change color when exposed to chemicals. Also easily oxidized in O₃ environment

3) Due to the four-sided folding installation, the aluminum cleanroom panel can only be processed in the factory and cannot be modified and reprocessed on site, and the processing cycle is also long.

3. HPL panel

HPL panel is a high-pressure thermosetting resin laminated decorative panel. It is made of special core paper (similar to kraft paper or wood fiber) impregnated with phenolic resin and high-end decorative paper impregnated with melamine and then subjected to high temperature and high pressure. The building materials industry is generally known as fireproof panel. If the thickness exceeds 1mm, especially when decorative paper is used on both sides, the industry calls it compact panel or solid phenolic core panel, or SPC panel.

The product production process and technology are as follows:

1) Prepare resin glue from chemical raw materials such as phenol, formaldehyde, other additives,  impregnate decorative paper and kraft paper with resin glue and then dry;

2) Prepare the impregnated paper according to the required thickness, and then cover the surface with steel tempanels with different surface treatments;

3) Send it to the high-temperature hot-pressing unit and heat-press it into a panel under a pressure of no less than 5MPa;

4) After cooling, send it to the trimming workshop and cut it into standard size.

advantage:

Due to its uniform and dense structure, laminate is strong at every point on the panel. If the surface is finished with special resin, its performance can be further enhanced. The color, style and texture of the panel surface are very expressive, so it can be used as outdoor and indoor building materials with corresponding strength requirements and appearance requirements. Used in clean room decoration, it has excellent impact resistance, water resistance, moisture resistance, drug resistance, heat resistance and wear resistance. In addition, the product is difficult to stain, easy to clean and easy to maintain. The beauty of the product lasts for a long time. The impact absorption and special manufacturing process of the HPL panel make it have a certain degree of shock resistance, high strength and not easy to deform, ensuring better air tightness in the clean room.

disadvantage:

The cost is slightly higher; the fire protection level is B1 and cannot be used as an independent partition of the main fire passage in China; it can be used as a veneer for fire passages.