INDUSTRY NEWS

No cleanroom cigars

The first offspring in the first-ever family of global cleanroom standards arrived with the new year. Distributed by the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Cleanrooms and Associated Controlled Environments—Part 1: Classification of Airborne Particulates (ISO/DIS 14644-1) is part of the family that will eventually comprise some 12 documents.

The entire brood of standards should be available by 1999. That's about one-half the time usually required to coordinate the normal standards-writing process, and the proud father, Richard Matthews, president of Filtration Technology in Greensboro, NC, crows that the timely delivery is because of the cooperative zeal shown by participants from the United States, France, Great Britain, Japan, Germany, and other countries. "The spirit of cooperation has been a pleasant surprise," says Matthews, who oversees the work of the ISO technical committee drafting the protocols.

The first document has three new classes of air cleanliness, two of which would be comparable to Class 0.1 and Class 0.01 ratings under FS 209E. "This was kind of the key document, establishing the cleanroom classes," Matthews says.

Matthews plans to use the momentum to see the family off before the decade ends. Anyone who wants a copy of the newborn standard or who wants to help in the midwifing process may contact the institute at 847/255-1561.

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