Pall Life Sciences is a leading global provider of filtration, purification, and separation technologies to the diverse and rapidly expanding life sciences market. The company’s facility in Ann Arbor, MI, manufactures lab products, OEM materials and devices for the life sciences industry, as well as cell separation technology. The solid growth of these products required the addition of more cleanroom manufacturing space.

EXACTING REQUIREMENTS

Chuck Carpenter, facilities manager and construction coordinator for the addition, immediately started looking for ways to design an energy efficient clean room that would serve the company’s manufacturing needs for years to come.

The present complex has multiple clean room manufacturing areas and Pall has tried various methods of humidifying over the years. From electric steam to ultrasonic, their experiences have not been satisfactory due to high operating costs or demanding maintenance requirements.

Carpenter called on Mee Fog for their input in designing an energy-efficient system. To preserve the integrity of the cleanroom envelope, positive pressure has to be maintained in the room at all times. To accomplish this, large amounts of outside air are required to offset the exhaust and room leakage. The large airflows must have tight temperature and humidity control, and doing so in a budget-friendly way was very important.

Mee Fog agreed to assist them in designing a humidification system that would provide the humidity control they desired in an energy-efficient manner.

FITTING THE BILL

The new cleanroom space has a custom roof-mounted air handler rated at 45,000 cfm. The unit has 35,000 cfm of recirculation and 10,000 cfm of air that passes through heating and cooling coils. The Mee Fog nozzles are located in the 35,000 cfm section and humidify the recirculation airstream. A single high-pressure Mee Fog pump provides 1,000 psi water to the nozzle headers. System capacity is controlled by controlling the Mee Fog pump speed, which modulates the amount of water that is pumped to the nozzle headers. The system is controlled by the building control system.

“The system controls the room humidity levels perfectly. I have had to do very little maintenance on this system, and it integrated into the building management system very well. I wouldn’t change anything,” Carpenter said. ES