Milliken's ultra clean facility churns out two new wipers

05/01/2003

By Mark A. DeSorbo

SPARTANBURG, S.C.—Within months of opening an ISO Class 1 cleanroom laundry—the final processing point for its cleanroom and automotive wipers—Milliken & Co. has unveiled two new products with the help of "technology partners" Asahi Kasei Corp. (Tokyo) and Freudenberg & Co. (Weinheim, Germany).

Business manager Chris Roman says Milliken's Captura is a line of high-sorbency, low-residual wipers that are geared for ISO Class 5 to ISO Class 8 automotive, life sciences and semiconductor environments. The wipers utilize Asahi Bemliese spun-bonded rayon.

"The fact that spun-bonding is a continuous filament process lends itself to cleanliness and low fibers," says Roman. "There are no additives or lubricants, and the absorbency of rayon is extremely high when compared to other raw materials."

Milliken & Co. has unveiled two new cleanroom wipers—Captura and Matrix. The company says the Captura line is ideal for ISO Class 5 to ISO Class 8 environments (above) housing automotive, life science and semiconductor applications, while Matrix is more suited for critical environments up to ISO Class 4, employing chip, pharmaceutical, and medical technologies (below).Click here to enlarge image

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Click here to enlarge image

Using a Freudenberg Evolon fabric, Milliken has also introduced Matrix—an ultra-microdenier wiper, which Roman says has a denier-per-filament of approximately 0.2 microns for maximum particle holding properties. The company says it's designed for critical areas of up to ISO Class 4. "The semiconductor, pharmaceutical and medical arenas are target areas for this product," says Archie Booker, Milliken's market manager.