Industry observers often encounter the claim: "Pollution in a clean room is invisible, leaving nothing to clean, and hence no reason to clean." This assumption overlooks the essential need for clean room maintenance procedures. In pharmaceutical manufacturing, the cleansing effect directly determines drug quality and compliance. When the environment of a clean room is contaminated, pharmaceutical safety cannot be assured, creating significant patient risks and adverse societal consequences. Routine cleaning and preventative upkeep of the clean room are indispensable requirements. How, therefore, should clean room personnel properly Clean?

Before examining the critical importance of cleaning and maintenance, it is essential to identify the four main sources of contamination in a clean room:

1、Tools and operational equipment inside the clean room will generate and release airborne particles into the clean room space during active operation.

2、Materials and products handled in the clean room also shed particulate matter into the clean room space.

3、Structural components and fixtures in modular clean rooms, including clean room floors, clean room wall panel, clean room ceiling system, etc.

4、Personnel working in the clean room represent the primary source of contamination, and 80% of the pollution in the clean room originates from particles emitted by personnel.

Regarding clean room contamination sources, only dust particles with a size larger than 50um can be seen by the naked eye. A microscope is required to inspect dust particles smaller than 50um, which is why the clean room appears so clean. In many precision manufacturing sectors, any dust particles larger than 0.1um can cause severe harm to products. Therefore, it is necessary not only to focus on establishing clean rooms, but also to maintain a qualified production environment through contamination control technology.

Although the clean room can achieve self-purification through its air supply system, the circulating air system can only remove a portion of the pollutants, leaving a large amount of contaminants that may contact products directly or indirectly, resulting in defective products.

The primary purpose of cleanrooms is to eliminate contaminants, protect products from contamination, and improve product quality. Clean room cleaning is divided into two categories, preventive cleaning and active cleaning. Preventive cleaning is designed to prevent contaminant generation and prevent the introduction of pollutants from the external environment into the clean room environment, or to effectively minimize the release of contaminants from critical areas.

Depending on the tools used, active cleaning methods can be categorized into dry and wet processes. The dry method relies on a vacuum cleaner or dry tools for cleaning. However, dry methods can only eliminate a portion of dust particles. The smaller the particles, the greater their adhesion to surfaces, and the longer particles remain attached, the more difficult they are to remove.

Wet cleaning serves as an effective supplement to the dry process. Fine particles attached to surfaces are difficult to remove with a vacuum cleaner because the vacuum cleaner does not generate the airflow velocity required to dislodge the particles. At the same time, to avoid cross-contamination, the cleaning procedure should follow a top-to-bottom and inside-to-outside direction, using a straight-line wiping technique with overlapping strokes.

Routine cleaning and maintenance of the clean room is essential for maintaining optimal clean room performance. Furthermore, the clean room must be cleaned continuously during construction. Cleaning must occur throughout the build process and cannot be deferred until completion. Clean room cleaning frequency must satisfy the operational standards of the clean room, and all cleaning operations must be carried out in compliance with established protocols.