INDUSTRY NEWS

Put a sock on it

W. L. Gore & Associates would like to get its foot in the door with a new idea for cleanroom garb. So far, though, the vendor has gotten the boot from the semiconductor industry for its new cleanroom sock. That could change, contends Nora Sylvestre, when more people get a leg up on the idea.
"One of the things that puts this out on the edge... is that most folks haven't thought about this approach before," asserts Sylvestre, a product specialist with the Elkton, MD­based supplier. The sock is made of Gore-Tex three-layer cleanroom fabric that has a PTFE membrane between a mitt and a polyester fabric for durability. It has no closures; the sock simply tucks inside the pant leg. Designed to wear over street socks, the garment allows the user to choose dedicated cleanroom shoes.
The vendor developed the sock to conduct particle tests on footwear and discovered it provides a very high level of particulate control. "It performs better than our overboot, which we believe is the best cleanroom footwear available," Sylvestre says. Gore figured the sock "would work well with the cleanroom shoe" made by Lehigh Safety Shoe, and tests have borne this out.
"The limitation we see right now is that gowning rooms are built for an overboot with a gator zip that can be generically assigned to anyone," Sylvestre laments. "They don't have the storage space for someone to keep a dedicated shoe."

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