[labnetwork] Laundry Machines for Clean Room Suits

[Luciani, Vincent (Fed)]

Hello Milan,

I initiated a discussion thread about a year ago regarding cleanroom garments.  Below, is the summary I made back then.  It might save you some leg work.
Eventually, we decided to stay with a commercial service.   We conducted extensive market research about the plans and options available and learned that many different plans and options are available and, as usual, "the devil is in the details".  We re-competed the contract with detailed provisions stipulating the service we required.  Award is pending.  Laundering our own was not the answer for us, but is for some.  We don't have access to a student body labor pool, nor an ideal spot for the infrastructure.

To All:
By the way, topics like these always come up at the UGIM, especially in the Bootie Camp on Sunday morning.  If you have not registered for the UGIM yet, I encourage you to do so here:  REGISTER FOR UGIM<https://ugim.nano.upenn.edu/>


Good Luck,
Vince

Vincent K. Luciani
Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 6201
Gaithersburg, MD  20899-6201



>From May 18, 2017

Hello All,

Thanks for all the great responses.  I very briefly summarized them in the table below.

Lab

Solution

Comments

NIST CNST NanoFab

Laundry service

Cycled weekly, significant problem with replacement cost, about 100 sets/week

University of Louisville

Self-laundered

No significant problems

University of Wisconsin

Self-laundered

Owns their garments laundered in their HEPA filtered washer and dryer

University of CA, Berkeley

Tyvek

User replaces their own regularly

Cornell Nanoscale Facility

Laundry service

Had a problem, reduced inspection criteria to control replacement costs

Draper Labs

Laundry service

60 users.  Vendor offered insurance that proved cost effective

University of Delaware

Laundry service

Cycled out every two weeks, also some problems with cost of replacing damaged goods

University of Washington

Laundry service

Had a similar experience to NIST.  Switched vendors and it got better.

UCSB Nanofabrication Facility

Laundry service

Large volume.  Found better, cheaper service from a local small business instead of the big guys

University of Pennsylvania

Laundry service

Suffering similar experience as NIST.  Working with vendor to try to control costs.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Laundry service

Switched to Alltex fiber suits.  Just as clean as Gore-Tex

University of Utah

Laundry service

Owns their garments, laundered by contractor every two weeks.



I am not sure what we will do yet as we are trying to negotiate with the vendor.  We reduced to the lowest inspection criteria but are still having problems, for example booties with a piece of tape stuck to them pulled as defective, then it takes them 8 weeks to replace it.
We now require all rejected garments be returned to us for inspection.  We then inspect all discarded garments ourselves in order to train the vendor on what constitutes a defect.  It is a painful process.  Disposable garments are in our future until and if we can find a better solution.


Thanks again,
Vince

From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Milan Begliarbekov
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2018 2:19 PM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: [labnetwork] Laundry Machines for Clean Room Suits

Hi All,

Does anyone have experience with washing / drying their own clean room suits?

Are there good specs out there for the soap, types of washing and drying machines, the requirements for the water to those machines? Also are there some manufacturers for the washing / drying machines that are good for this purpose? Laundry SOP's would also be helpful.

Thank you for the help,

Milan Begliarbekov, Ph.D.
NanoFabrication Manager
CUNY Advanced Science Research Center
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