[labnetwork] Suggestions for interlocking fume hoods

[Dennis Schweiger]

Vito,

here at UofMichigan, we've done a couple of things with the benches, and
the interlocking of them.

1) On some of the newer (vintage 2008 and newer), we're interlocking the
E-stop control signal of the bench as part of our tool control network.
This circuit shunts the electronics of the benches, but does not impact the
QDR bath, spray nozzle, or sink/faucet.

2) On all of the older vintage benches, it's simply an honor system.

3)  All of the benches have a stack-lite assembly (green lamp, see picture)
that lets us see from the cleanroom, or outside hallways, if the bench has
been enabled by a user.  You shouldn't be at the bench unless the light is
green.  This is something we've just adopted in the last 6-8 months, so
we're still doing some training on it.

4) In addition to the green lamp mentioned above, each primary bench in the
process bay has a second lamp on the stack that is amber.  This amber lamp
is lit whenever our body count drops to less than three people.  It's part
of our "single user alert" system that we implemented as part of a safety
program.  This "helps" to alert the users that they're getting close to
that "no user can process alone in a bench" criteria, since our fab area is
so spread out.  Again, this is an honor system, but it's worked well so far.

Dennis Schweiger
University of Michigan/LNF

734.647.2055 Ofc

On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 1:16 PM, Vito Logiudice <vito.logiudice at uwaterloo.ca
> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Our efforts to physically interlock our tools via our lab management
> platform (Badger in our case) is progressing well. In most cases we are
> interlocking computer monitors, keyboards or computer mice with good
> results.
>
> My team and I have discussed how to best interlock our numerous fume hoods
> but were unable to settle on any one approach. For safety reasons we
> certainly do not want to make the hoods entirely unavailable when not
> enabled by Badger; ie., we want to encourage their use when lab users
> handle chemicals. However we do believe it would be beneficial to
> physically interlock them in some fashion to at least make them somewhat
> less appealing to use unless they are first enabled. I’ve searched past
> threads on this fantastic network and while I came across some great
> related discussions I was unable to find anything which dealt specifically
> with hood interlocks.
>
> I’d greatly appreciate hearing from those of you whom have interlocked
> your hoods or are thinking of doing so soon. I’m curious to know what
> service or feature you may have tapped into on a typical hood setup that
> might include some combination of spin-coaters, hot plates,
> heated/recirculating chemical baths, N2 guns, DI guns etc.
>
> Thanks very much for any insights.
>
> Best regards,
> Vito
> --
> Vito Logiudice  P.Eng.
> Director of Operations, Quantum NanoFab
> University of Waterloo
> Lazaridis QNC 1207
> 200 University Avenue West
> Waterloo, ON           Canada N2L 3G1
> Tel.: (519) 888-4567  ext. 38703
> Email: vito.logiudice at uwaterloo.ca
> Website: https://fab.qnc.uwaterloo.ca
>
>
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>
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