[labnetwork] Gas cabinet installation by contractors or facility

[Dan P. Woodie]

Joe,

I would second the statement that gas cabinets should be installed by professionals who know the work well, but you do need to be careful that the contractors are skilled in that area, specifically high-purity / high-hazard gas piping. I have had to deal with contractors in the past who were certified orbital welders but then thought the requirement for helium leak checking just meant pressurizing the new line with helium to see if the pressure gauge drops overnight. If you have or develop your own staff to do the orbital welding, you need to ensure they have the appropriate expertise and experience in that area, and code experts reviewing the proposed installation methods to ensure it meets local regulations and general best practices. Mistakes here are often deadly.

I have had setups where we had the utilities present to install the gas cabinet, which did make the installation much easier / cheaper later, but there was still significant cost to do the final work and run the piping. We also had situations where we did not use an installed cabinet for 20 years but then had the gas panel replaced by the OEM for the new gas that was eventually needed. Much easier to do than a whole new cabinet.

So, if you truly don't know what gases you will need, installing empty but facilitated cabinets may be a good idea, with the idea that you (or a qualified contractor) can put in the needed gas panel and piping later. One thing to keep in mind would be exhaust compatibility, as a recent discussion on here highlighted that some facilities segregate the exhaust by hazard class, which may limit what gases can go in each cabinet. Other questions will be gas specific, such as whether your local Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) requires items like catastrophic release mitigation (scrubbers) on the gas cabinet exhaust. At a minimum, I would recommend you have all the facilities (power, house nitrogen, exhaust, CDA) run to a line of open spots that are waiting for the gas cabinets. I have never seen a situation where anyone regretted doing that.

Dan

Daniel Woodie
Director, Micro/Nano Fabrication Center, Princeton Materials Institute

From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> On Behalf Of Joseph Losby
Sent: Tuesday, March 4, 2025 12:40 PM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: [labnetwork] Gas cabinet installation by contractors or facility

Dear Labnetwork,

We are currently in the design development phase of constructing a cleanroom facility.  The intention is to have about 40-50% of the cleanroom unused on opening day that is reserved for future tools.  Although we have scoped out what future equipment we wish to acquire, they are not finalized.

Our contractors wish to install the gas cabinets (they are included in the project budget) for both the currently scoped and future tools.  Because the cabinet configurations are equipment dependent (most will be for RIE and CVD/dep tools), we are trying to decide if it's worth the contractors installing 'generic' cabinets for future tools that we can configure ourselves (install gas monitoring, safety showers, etc).

Do you feel this is a feasible approach and if so, what would you install? Or, would you rather install the cabinets yourselves entirely?

Cheers,
Joe




Joseph Losby, PhD

Manager, qLab Operations

joseph.losby at ucalgary.ca<mailto:joseph.losby at ucalgary.ca>



[cid:image001.jpg at 01DB8DA6.465E6300]<https://io.ucalgary.ca/quantum-city>


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