Fluoroware opens facility for ultraclean disk shippers

Chaska, MN

Fluoroware Inc. has opened a Class 100 cleanroom facility for the manufacture of its S802 95-mm disk shippers that eliminates the need for pre-cleaning. According to the company, this advanced feature will reduce cost of ownership by up to 25 percent. Fluoroware provides a certificate of analysis with each box of its disk shippers, indicating particulate count and extractables. Its S802 95-mm thin disk shipper was introduced in September 1997 and is made of ultraclean polypropylene and polycarbonate materials, which feature lower chloride levels, low extractable anions and low volatile organics.

Manufacture of the multi-component disk shippers is automated up to the assembly and packaging steps. Assemblies are injection-molded simultaneously, eliminating the need for staging of parts — another source of contamination. After injection-molding, five-axis cleanroom robots transfer the disk shipper parts from presses in a cleanroom environment to a Class 100 cleanroom, where they are assembled, double bagged and sealed. A controlled manufacturing process allows the use of one lot of material per work order, complete material lot traceability, controllable work order lot sizes and ultraclean packaging. — SES