SPIE develops a solution dedicated to Clean rooms

Saint-Denis, 10 December 2020 – SPIE Industrie & Tertiaire – Tertiaire division, a French subsidiary of the SPIE group, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, has announced the development of a dynamic simulator adapted to clean rooms conditions - and particularly dedicated for its customers in the pharmaceutical sector. This innovation offers a degree of reliability that allows the technical risks to be reduced to a minimum.

Control the contamination risks that are specific to clean rooms

Conducting research without any risk of external contamination is a major challenge for clean rooms, which must comply with strict atmosphere control conditions. SPIE’s HVAC^[1] Clean Concept department has been building a great deal of expertise in this area since 2007, in line with the high standards expected by the pharmaceutical sector and, more generally, the healthcare sector, microelectronics sector and even the cosmetics sector.

In order to guarantee the expected performance levels when commissioning installations, SPIE has developed a dynamic simulator that reproduces the actual conditions within a clean room, for example the air quality and equipment such as airlocks and doors. The experts from the HVAC Clean Concept department are therefore routinely offering their customers the opportunity to use it before actually implementing the proposed solution at their premises. This innovation can also be used in research and safety laboratories: it has most notably been used at the P4 laboratory^[2] in Lyon and the Boehringer Ingelheim biotechnical production site.

A system designed to adapt to all configurations

This dynamic simulator, which the teams at SPIE have been working on for several years, aims to test the functional automation and regulation sequences under conditions that are as close as possible to reality. Therefore, in order to respond to the different scenarios within a clean room, it allows testing to be carried out with programmes from different machine manufacturers for different air treatment systems, thereby guaranteeing the reliability of the installations and their correct operation.

At the heart of this light and agile installation is a dynamic air treatment system connected to a clean room with an airlock that allows the technical operating principles defined by the project agency upstream of the project to be validated. The system works with many machine manufacturers and air treatment systems. “It was vital for the test bench to be able to adapt to a wide range of installations. This allows us to deal with the constraints of each of our customers and to test our installations in the maximum possible number of configurations. Ensuring that equipment is functioning correctly prior to commissioning it is of critical importance for our customers”, explained Cédric Imbert, head of the HVAC Clean Concept department at SPIE Industrie & Tertiaire.

This saves time and reduces technical risks for both parties involved. “This innovation allows SPIE to strengthen its position in key sectors and is testament to our climate engineering expertise”, said Cédric Imbert.

_{[1] Abbreviation for “Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning”.}

_{[2] The P4 laboratory classification means “pathogen level 4”. These class 4 pathogens are classified as being extremely dangerous (high mortality rate in the event of infection), and there is no protective vaccine, no effective medical treatment, and possible transmission through aerosols. The laboratory in Lyon is the only one of its kind in France.}