Modular Cleanroom with Removable Utility Units for Rapid Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing manufacturing facilities lack flexibility and efficiency in providing cleanroom environments with redundant utility services, leading to challenges in rapid deployment, scalability, and compliance with regulatory standards, especially for pharmaceutical and biotechnological products.
Innovation Solution
A modular cleanroom system with removable utility units providing air, water, and electricity connections, equipped with sterilizing and sanitizing units, and a hermetic connector that maintains positive air pressure, allowing for rapid deployment, scalability, and compliance with biosafety standards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional fixed manufacturing facilities are used, then utility services can be provided, but flexibility and rapid deployment capability are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The facility is divided into modular cleanroom units that can be independently configured and deployed. Each module contains integrated utility systems, allowing flexible arrangement without requiring complex fixed infrastructure. The cleanroom modules can be separately manufactured, transported, and assembled on-site.
Solution Approach 2:
The utility units are designed with universal connection interfaces that can serve multiple functions and be adapted to different cleanroom configurations. The same utility unit can provide air, water, electricity, and other services to various module types, reducing the need for specialized infrastructure for each application.
2Reliability
If cleanroom facilities are built from scratch, then regulatory compliance can be achieved, but deployment time is extended
Solution Approach 1:
Cleanroom modules are pre-assembled, pre-tested, and pre-validated in controlled manufacturing environments before deployment. Regulatory compliance documentation and validation data are prepared in advance, allowing rapid installation and commissioning at the target site without compromising compliance standards.
Solution Approach 2:
Standardized module designs with proven compliance track records can be replicated and deployed multiple times. Once a module design is validated for regulatory compliance, identical copies can be manufactured and deployed rapidly across different locations, maintaining compliance through design consistency.
3Reliability
If utility connections are fixed, then service reliability is maintained, but scalability and reconfiguration capability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Utility connections utilize dynamic, removable interfaces rather than fixed permanent connections. Quick-connect mechanisms allow utility units to be easily attached and detached while maintaining sealed, reliable connections during operation. This enables reconfiguration and scaling by adding or removing utility units as needed.
Solution Approach 2:
Standardized interface adapters and connection mechanisms serve as intermediaries between utility units and cleanroom modules. These intermediaries ensure reliable, sealed connections while allowing for easy attachment and detachment, bridging the need for both connection reliability and operational flexibility.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If positive air pressure is maintained in cleanroom, then contamination is prevented, but removable utility units may be dislodged
Solution Approach 1:
The connector design incorporates mechanical features that counteract the force exerted by positive air pressure. Reinforced sealing mechanisms and mechanical interlocks are positioned to resist the outward pressure, preventing dislodgement while maintaining the pressure differential necessary for contamination prevention.
Solution Approach 2:
Connector components utilize composite material structures combining sealing materials with mechanically strong attachment features. The composite design integrates both the flexibility needed for sealing under pressure and the structural strength to resist dislodgement forces from positive air pressure within the cleanroom.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables rapid setup and redeployment of cleanroom facilities, supports multiple processes without disrupting existing operations, and ensures compliance with regulatory standards, enhancing energy efficiency and containment of pathogens.
Implementation Method 1
the hermetic connector has a mechanical strength sufficient to permit positive air pressure within the cleanroom without dislodging the removable utility unit
Implementation Method 2
The removable utility unit comprises an air utility comprising at least one of one or more sterilizing, sanitizing or both, units selected from a UV unit, an ozonation unit, a hydrogen peroxide, a nitric oxide, chlorine dioxide, a steam or fog unit
Implementation Method 3
an ozonation unit
Implementation Method 4
a steam or fog unit
Implementation Method 5
the air utility connection is provided by first and second air inputs connectable to two separate heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and wherein the first and second air inputs are connected into one or more air distribution ventilation shafts
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention includes a removable utility unit and/or removable utility room for providing one or more utilities to at least one of a controlled air, a sealable, a sterilizable, a sanitizable cleanroom comprising: at least one of a utility connection selected from air, water, gas, or electricity; and a substantially hermetic connector between the removable unit and the cleanroom, wherein the at least one of air, water, gas, or electricity are connectable to matching utility inputs in the cleanroom.