Consultant services
03/01/2006
Compiled by Angela Godwin
Turnkey solutions for cleanroom facilities
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American Cleanroom Systems (ACS) is an established manufacturer and design/build general contractor providing turnkey cleanroom facilities. As a normal part of ACS’s service, the company provides a comprehensive initial-design review program. This service can help customers determine not only the class needed for their controlled environment, but also operational parameters like temperature and humidity control. For the new cleanroom user, the company offers a single source for the right design in an often confusing and overwhelming field of choices. For the experienced user, ACS offers an up-to-date technology base for control options that can save operational cost. Proper selection of environmental equipment can make the difference in how well your facility works initially and for the long term. Through the company’s Value Engineering approach, it can minimize over-designed systems and emphasize design simplification. The results provide a facility that not only meets the process requirements, but does so in a cost-effective manner-both from initial installation to monthly operating cost. According to the company, to get the benefit of more than 25 years in the controlled environment industry, call American-it can help “clear the air” in more ways than one.
American Cleanroom Systems
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
www.americancleanrooms.com
Full-range design/builder relies on experience
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CH2M HILL IDC is a leading designer and builder of high-technology research and manufacturing facilities and cleanrooms worldwide. Its success in delivering millions of square feet of cleanrooms since 1985 is based largely on the company’s ability to provide a full range of services-from site selection through construction, commissioning, and turnover. For completed facilities, CH2M HILL IDC helps clients optimize the performance of their facilities through the firm’s ongoing operations and maintenance services. The company’s integrated project teams deliver complete design and construction services that include standard disciplines (mechanical, electrical, process, structural, civil, instrumentation, and controls) as well as environmental engineering, industrial engineering, process simulation, and assistance with vendor selection. CH2M HILL IDC provides all the services required to manage construction, procure and install equipment, and perform complete start-up of a facility. Many of its projects are performed on a fast-track basis, which enables clients to achieve critical time-to-market goals for their products while reducing capital costs. Supporting project teams is a fully staffed project-controls department with estimators, project schedulers, and cost-control engineers who apply their many years of experience and the latest software tools to derive the greatest value for clients’ capital-improvement budgets. The company’s performance record validates its ability to consistently deliver cleanrooms requiring the most stringent standards around the world, including challenging project locations often lacking high-technology project delivery resources. CH2M HILL IDC has led many cleanroom technology advances, such as those related to energy reduction, control of airborne molecular contamination, airflow modeling to optimize cleanroom performance, and the manufacturing of cleanroom materials and systems. The firm has a long history of success in achieving sustainable cleanroom design and construction strategies to reduce long-term energy costs for clients while minimizing the environmental impact of their facilities.
CH2M HILL IDC
Spartanburg, SC
www.ch2m.com
Firm’s services extend to standard cleanroom, P3 labs
Clean Air Technology provides its design/build and A&E consultant services to the electronics, aerospace, pharmaceutical, and medical industries, as well as universities and government agencies worldwide. These consultant services are provided both for standard cleanrooms and for biohazard P3 (BSL3) cleanroom containment laboratories and research facilities. Clean Air Technology is a leading “design and build” cleanroom contractor and manufacturer for modular cleanrooms and biocontainment facilities. The Cleanroom Division specializes in the turnkey design, engineering, fabrication, installation, start-up, testing, and operation of Class 1 to Class 100,000 (ISO Class 3 to 9) modular cleanrooms. These cleanrooms feature prefabricated, modular, load-bearing, air-return walls and structural top-deck systems. The Bio-Containment Division specializes in BSL level P2 and P3 biohazard containment laboratories and research facilities. In addition to both on-site constructed and modular P3 labs, the company also builds portable 20-foot and 40-foot containerized P3 laboratories and truck-mounted mobile labs, which are ready to ship worldwide, plug in, and go to work as medical emergencies develop. Clean Air Technology supplies its consultant services and products to numerous industries worldwide, such as pharmaceutical, medical, semiconductor, electronics, and aerospace.
Clean Air Technology, Inc.
Canton, MI
www.cleanairtechnology.com
Let the professionals handle the responsibility
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“The success of those we serve is the foundation of our progress,” says CleanAir Solutions, Inc. At the company, cleanroom consultants promote the design/build approach because it limits the customer’s liability from potential errors in their own prewritten specification and places the responsibility back on “the specialists” to provide the best design solution. When presenting a proposal, CleanAir hopes to convey the added value that its design concept offers. Value is a relative term-what’s important to one client may not be important to another. That’s why CleanAir’s consultants use a Needs Analysis Worksheet to accurately assess your requirements and ensure that the company does not inadvertently create guidelines that impact the overall goal of a project. CleanAir offers solutions that deliver significant benefits beyond the initial area in which a product or service operates. As specialists in cleanroom technology, CleanAir carefully analyzes your process to ensure your program has been properly evaluated, and takes into consideration the various factors affecting overall cleanroom performance. The company’s design experts specialize in integrating your existing site conditions into its construction plans. As CleanAir states, it understands the importance of appreciating your assets through innovative designs and quality service.
CleanAir Solutions, Inc.
Fairfield, CA
www.CleanRoomSpecialists.com
Consultants add nano/bio focus to its offerings
Cleanroom Consulting, LLC, founded in 1999, has completed a number of seminal industry projects, including: project planning and basis of design (BOD) preparation for a new cell therapy technology, a new, large cGMP bulk clinicals cleanroom facility, and a new, leading-edge nano/bio cleanroom. The company has also performed a “make versus buy” analysis comparing construction of a new biologics facility to alternatives such as outsourcing/contract manufacturing; provided cleanroom design support to leading A&E firms; worked closely with bioprocess consultants on a university gene-therapy facility; advised a biotechnology client on the retrofit and validation of a new aseptic fill suite; delivered early-stage product launch consultation for a new, enabling biophotonics technology; served as “expert witness” in cleanroom construction and related products litigation; and provided owner representative services for several new cleanrooms, including projects for semiconductor and microelectronics, medical device, aerospace, filtration products, and critical cleaning. Cleanroom Consulting provides contamination-control and cGMP audits; new cleanroom product introductions; cleanroom product testing and cleanliness evaluations; project planning and BOD services; cleanroom conceptual designs; cleanroom applications engineering; process isolation and mini-environment applications consultation; cleanroom troubleshooting and corrective actions; and construction claims arbitration.
Cleanroom Consulting, LLC
Pittsford, NY
www.cleanroom-consulting.com
Firm offers PVC approach to cleanroom construction
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Oftentimes the question is asked: What is the best covering for the walls and ceilings of my cleanroom? FRP panels and ceramic tiles are a poor choice because they are unable to prevent bacteria from entering the wall surface behind the covering. Epoxy paint is used frequently with the intent of forming a seal over the existing wall surface. This is a great product as long as nothing ever touches it: The tiniest scratch could penetrate the very thin coating, allowing bacteria to enter the sheetrock substrate and begin to multiply. The Sheetrock essentially becomes a petri dish, with bacteria infesting behind the paint. So, if you are: looking for a way to save lives and money; having problems with bacteria control; in need of a Class 1 (ISO Class 3) to Class 100,000 (ISO Class 8) cleanroom; interested in an indestructible wall covering; thinking of building or remodeling an environment that needs to be sterile; tired of having your corner guards break or separate from the wall, then you need a new approach to constructing a cleanroom environment. PVC cannot be improved upon for its cleanability as well as for its ability to prevent bacteria from finding a place to multiply. Walls and ceilings are covered in rigid PVC sheets, which are then heated on a machine and formed to follow the contours of the walls, flowing smoothly around the outside and inside corners at an easy 90-degree angle or any necessary radius. The seams between the two sheets are heat-welded and smoothed to form a seamless surface. Says the company: From consultation through installation, Cleanroom USA will simply and painlessly transform any room into an ultra cleanroom.
Cleanroom USA
Sanford, FL
www.cleanroomusa.com
Review included as part of process
As a design/build general and mechanical contractor, Clean Rooms West’s (CRW) projects start with consulting services. The company works with customers to review allocated space, process needs, compliance to codes, certification/validation requirements, and value-engineering concepts. Scope of work, facility specifications, and concept drawings are developed for consultation. Changes to meet customer requirements are implemented, and the preliminary consultation is reviewed. Project budgets are then analyzed, and value-engineering concepts are added to comply with project feasibility. Clean Rooms West provides this service at no cost as part of the design/build process. Added consulting services are offered for existing cleanroom operations that look to solve contamination problems, modify systems for energy efficiency, reduce variations in environmental parameters for process-sensitive applications, or add air-quality control for production requiring a cleaner environment. Again, these consulting services are typically provided as part of a cleanroom upgrade or modification project. Clean Rooms West also provides fee-based consulting services. The company offers experienced consulting for cleanroom design, energy-efficiencies, cleanroom processes, and cleanroom protocol. These services are offered to meet customer requirements. In some applications, consulting services are provided for a complete cleanroom design. Others services offer technical assistance for selecting components, instituting and administrating construction protocol, reviewing and recommending operational procedures, and demonstrating compliance to certification standards.
Clean Rooms West
Tustin, CA
www.cleanroomswest.com
Evaluation and training are part of the total clean process
CPS Certification Services, Inc. is a group of professionals who specialize in the “Clean Manufacturing Industry.” The CPS team works internationally with its customers in order to ensure the integrity of their controlled environments through evaluation, training, and procedure development. “Environmental enhancement,” says the company, is its mission; “total clean process” is its goal. All CPS consulting services are supported by its cleanroom-testing division, which specializes in the certification of all class cleanrooms, mini-environments, and laminar flow hoods. Testing capabilities include: airborne particle counting; airflow visualization; bio-burden; differential pressure; HEPA-filter leak scanning; HEPA-filter velocity and uniformity; parallelism; surface particle counting; and much more. CPS recognizes that everyone wears multiple hats these days. The company understands this and tries to make the interaction with its customers as “turnkey” as possible.
CPS Certification Services, Inc.
Aptos, CA
www.cpscertification.com
Cleanroom garments a plus in contamination control
A major source of contamination-where people are involved-is people. Since cleanroom garments are used to help minimize contamination from people, both the user and the provider of cleanroom garments need to understand and practice some basic, but important, ideas concerning contamination control as it relates to cleanroom garment systems. C.W. BERNDT Associates are consultants offering a variety of services in the area of contamination control for human-sourced contamination and related cleanroom garmenting, with a specialty in sterile garment validation. The company is highly experienced and well recognized in the industry and can focus its expertise effectively, improving critical operational environments so as to maximize profitability through informed contamination-control problem-resolution services. C.W. BERNDT Associates can review procedures related to garment inspection, washing, handling, and packaging, as well as testing, related sample plans, process controls, repairs, sterilization, record keeping and adherence to pertinent regulatory requirements. In effect, the company offers a thorough operations review/audit to evaluate processing effectiveness to ensure consistency and excellence. If a cleanroom-garment program is being considered for the first time, or an existing program is scheduled for renewal, contact C.W. BERNDT Associates, Ltd. before any hard decisions or commitments are made. The company will review your needs in terms of what is done in your cleanroom. Afterward, it will make recommendations, which may then be compared to proposals received from cleanroom garment service providers. The company can also act on your behalf in dealing with the providers in getting the right cleanroom garment program at the right price. C.W. BERNDT Associates
Highland Park, IL
On-site services geared to semiconductor market
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Entegris, Inc. delivers state-of-the-industry consulting and cleaning services to semiconductor customers around the world. These on-site services bring Entegris experts, technology, and services right into the cleanrooms of customers’ fabs. This array of on-site services includes logistics, cleaning, quality checks, and maintenance for Entegris products that customers use, including FOUPs, FOSBs, SMIF Pods, and 200 mm wafer carriers and boxes. The first fab customer to take advantage of Entegris’s on-site services was a large IDM manufacturer in Europe. Satisfaction with the services has been so high that the customer is now in its fourth year of contracting with Entegris in this area, says the firm. Entegris now reaches major fab customers globally with these cleanroom services in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific. On-site services mean Entegris experts are working in customers’ fabs every day to ensure that all of their wafer-handling products deliver maximum utilization. In addition to its on-site services, Entegris also operates four regional service centers located in the US, France, Singapore, and Taiwan. This regional approach allows customers to deliver their Entegris wafer-handling products to the service centers for cleaning and inspection before re-use.
Entegris, Inc.
Chaska, MN
www.entegris.com
Firm’s experience an asset in planning cleanrooms
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HDR is a nationally recognized leader in cleanroom design. The company has designed over 1 million square feet of cleanroom space for corporate, health care, academic, and federal clients. This includes Class 1 to 100,000 (ISO Class 3 to 8) cleanroom classifications. HDR has designed cleanrooms for Orbital, Micron Technology, LSI Logic, the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue University, the Advanced Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Science and Technology, and the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies at Sandia National Laboratories-just to name a few. The company understands that cleanroom spaces are a significant part of today’s research environment. Planning of these spaces includes tool layout as well as cleanroom configuration and HVAC concepts. HDR considers current and future research goals, protocol limitations, anticipated substrate sizes and throughput (which may affect material handling and tool loading/unloading systems), and plans for equipment acquisition and installation. Input from the end users (both researchers and operations staff) during the programming and schematic design phase of a project is essential in developing the overall facility layout. HDR is an architectural, engineering, and consulting firm that excels at complex projects and solving challenges for clients. More than 4500 employee-owners, including architects, engineers, consultants, scientists, planners, and construction managers, in over 100 locations worldwide, pool their strengths to provide solutions beyond the scope of traditional A/E/C firms.
HDR, Inc.
Omaha, NE
www.hdrinc.com
Building relationships while building global solutions
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M+W Zander US Operations is a full-service architecture, engineering, and construction management firm. The company’s focus is in complex, technically challenging projects in the fields of advanced technology-electronics, scientific research, life science, and government. Over its 94-year history, M+W Zander has emerged as an industry leader in research and development, pilot manufacturing, manufacturing, assembly and testing operations, supporting administrative, housing, and special-purpose facilities. The partnerships it has formed take the company to virtually every continent in the world. M+W Zander’s strategic collaboration with many of the most respected corporations in the world has developed into long-term partnerships with clients that span decades. Benchmarks of those relationships reflect that commitment: Over 80 percent of its business is for repeat clients; over 20 million square feet of clean environments have been designed and built around the globe; and over 50 percent of the world’s 300 mm facilities are part of the M+W Zander portfolio. The company produces well-designed manufacturing facilities for repeat customers worldwide-the single most explicit testimonial of its customers’ satisfaction. In recent years, M+W Zander has crossed traditional market boundaries, and has earned a reputation as a technology leader. The company supports its clients in facilities for materials sciences, supercomputing, nanosciences, high-energy physics, proton therapy treatment, bioengineering, life sciences, and other promising technologies.
M+W Zander US Operations, Inc.
Plano, TX
www.mw-zander.com
HHPC offers a unique, all-inclusive approach
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With more than 30 years of cleanroom operations and its Healthy High Performance Cleaning (HHPC) program, Porter Industries can provide solutions and recommendations for your facility. HHPC is a unique, all-inclusive approach designed to ensure a clean and safe work environment, increase employee productivity and satisfaction, and enhance the value and integrity of buildings. The end goal is to reflect the organizational mission and values of our customers. Through HHPC, Porter offers: over 30 years of experience in cleanroom operations and maintenance; a comprehensive strategy to help organizations attain safe, healthy, high-performing buildings; cross-contamination prevention programs inside and outside cleanroom areas, for maximum containment; best practices cleaning strategies, procedures and guidelines supported by easy-to-understand training materials; environmentally preferable purchasing guidelines for selecting janitorial chemicals, paper, liners, tools and equipment; initiatives that encourage occupant involvement to help ensure program success; communications materials to tell your key audiences about your environmental efforts; a pathway to earn credits toward certification under the LEED for Existing Buildings Green Building Rating SystemTM from the US Green Building Council. Porter Industries offers HHPC, Quality Inspection programs, green cleaning, training, LEED projects, and other consulting and contracting services.
Porter Industries, Inc.
Loveland, CO
www.porterindustries.com;
www.greencleaningconsultant.com
Designing cleanroom spaces throughout NE
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SMRT is a 60-person firm specializing in the design of cleanroom spaces for clients throughout New England. Its staff includes mechanical, electrical, structural, fire-protection and plumbing engineers, architects, landscape architects and interior designers. The company has offices in Maine, New Hampshire, and New York. Project highlights, include: Gulf of Maine Research Institute, where a new, 44,000-square-foot science and research lab was designed for functional and innovative spatial relationships that foster interaction and collaboration among scientists; SIRTeX Medical, where SMRT designed renovations for the relocation of a manufacturing/office facility-which supports manufacturing, shipping, receiving, quarantine, production, testing, quality control and distribution-for the medical device manufacturing company; Fairchild Semiconductor, with whom SMRT has worked for more than 15 years, having completed projects like Central Chiller plant of 6400 tons; semiconductor manufacturing; cleanrooms in Class 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 and 100,000; free cooling; and tool hook-up design. Other projects include: UMass-Lowell Olney Hall Nanotechnology Cleanroom Planning, where SMRT designed cleanrooms for a nanomanufacturing lab, bioprocess lab, and gowning room, and reactivated the systems in the existing VLSI cleanroom; and Eastern Maine Medical Center, where SMRT completed pharmacy renovations/additions, and also designed a rooftop HVAC unit to be installed for the cleanroom (ISO Class 8). SMRT’s design work has ranged from Class 100,000 to Class 1 cleanrooms (ISO Class 3 to 8) and ranges from work for semiconductor, bioscience, pharmaceutical, higher education, and health-care facilities. Some clients include: Anadigics, BAE Systems, Binax, Control Delivery Systems, DayStar, Fairchild Semiconductor, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, IDEXX Laboratories, Lonza Biologics, Nanosys, National Semiconductor, New Chapter, Olin Microelectronics, Poland Spring, Raytheon, Sensor Research, Sims Intertech, Stocker Yale, Taconic Farms, Texas Instruments, and The Jackson Laboratory.
SMRT Architecture Engineering Planning
Portland, ME
www.smrtinc.com
Forging a partnership with an eye to precision control
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TAC/Tour Andover Controls Precision Environments Group specializes in partnering with customers on the design and construction of new, retrofit, or renovation cleanroom and precision lab projects. Adopting a risk-based approach, TAC’s goal is to take responsibility for the guaranteed performance of the room. It has been delivering “mission critical” environments for over 18 years to customers for whom precision control is crucial to the quality of their end product. The company’s highly trained teams of engineers and project managers design and construct the project, and its expert service technicians keep your room performing like new year after year.
TAC/Tour Andover Controls
North Andover, MA
www.tac.com