Cleanroom suit
Encyclopedia
A clean room suit, cleanroom suit, or bunny suit, is an overall garment worn in a clean room. One common type is an all-in-one coverall worn by semiconductor
and nanotechnology
line production workers, technicians, and process / equipment engineers, as well as people in similar roles creating sterile products for the medical device
industry.
The suit covers the wearer to prevent skin and hair being shed into a clean room environment. The suit may be in one piece or consist of several separate garments worn tightly together. The suit incorporates both boots and hood. It must also incorporate a properly fitted bouffant
cap or mob cap
.
More advanced designs with face covers were introduced in the 1990s (like the Intel fab worker-style suits seen on the Pentium
product advertisements).
Suits are usually deposited in a store after being contaminated for dry cleaning, autoclaving and/or repair.
Similar suits are worn in the containment
areas of nuclear power plant
s. These suits consist of the main garment, hood, thin cotton gloves, rubber gloves, plastic bags over normal work shoes, and rubber booties. The wrists and ankles are taped down with masking tape. Occasionally a plastic raincoat is also worn. Removal of the garments (into several barrels) is a complicated process which must be performed in an exact sequence. Often a health physicist
is present in the work area to observe good anti-contamination practices.
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
and nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
line production workers, technicians, and process / equipment engineers, as well as people in similar roles creating sterile products for the medical device
Medical device
A medical device is a product which is used for medical purposes in patients, in diagnosis, therapy or surgery . Whereas medicinal products achieve their principal action by pharmacological, metabolic or immunological means. Medical devices act by other means like physical, mechanical, thermal,...
industry.
The suit covers the wearer to prevent skin and hair being shed into a clean room environment. The suit may be in one piece or consist of several separate garments worn tightly together. The suit incorporates both boots and hood. It must also incorporate a properly fitted bouffant
Bouffant
A bouffant is a type of hairstyle characterized by hair piled high on the head and hanging down on the sides.-History:The bouffant was a mainstream hairstyle in the mid-to-late 18th century in western Europe. It was thought to be created for Marie Antoinette, as she had relatively thin hair and...
cap or mob cap
Mob cap
A mob cap or mob-cap is a round, gathered or pleated cloth bonnet consisting of a caul to cover the hair, a frilled or ruffled brim, and a ribbon band, worn by married women in the Georgian period, when it was called a "bonnet"...
.
More advanced designs with face covers were introduced in the 1990s (like the Intel fab worker-style suits seen on the Pentium
Pentium
The original Pentium microprocessor was introduced on March 22, 1993. Its microarchitecture, deemed P5, was Intel's fifth-generation and first superscalar x86 microarchitecture. As a direct extension of the 80486 architecture, it included dual integer pipelines, a faster FPU, wider data bus,...
product advertisements).
Suits are usually deposited in a store after being contaminated for dry cleaning, autoclaving and/or repair.
Similar suits are worn in the containment
Containment building
A containment building, in its most common usage, is a steel or reinforced concrete structure enclosing a nuclear reactor. It is designed, in any emergency, to contain the escape of radiation to a maximum pressure in the range of 60 to 200 psi...
areas of nuclear power plant
Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...
s. These suits consist of the main garment, hood, thin cotton gloves, rubber gloves, plastic bags over normal work shoes, and rubber booties. The wrists and ankles are taped down with masking tape. Occasionally a plastic raincoat is also worn. Removal of the garments (into several barrels) is a complicated process which must be performed in an exact sequence. Often a health physicist
Health physics
Health physics is a field of science concerned with radiation physics and radiation biology with the goal of providing technical information and proper techniques regarding the safe use of ionizing radiation...
is present in the work area to observe good anti-contamination practices.