Cleanroom Accessories

Cleanroom accessories, or clean room accessories, are the small items that sit around the main equipment: the floor drain traps, the containers that hold materials between stages, the scoops used to dispense powders, the sieves fitted to mills and sifters, the waste bins, and the stands and holders that keep bottles, SOPs and plates off the work surfaces. Each one is small, but every one of them is touched, cleaned and moved every day, so each one can either help or undermine contamination control.

The rules that apply to large cleanroom equipment apply to accessories too. Surfaces should be smooth and non-porous so they do not shed particles or hold residues. Corners should be rounded and welds ground, so there are no crevices where powder or microbes can collect. Materials must stand up to repeated cleaning with detergents, disinfectants and sporicides without pitting or rusting. And the design should make the right way of working the easy way: lids that seal, pedals that keep hands off bins, handles that keep fingers out of product.

Accessories that touch the product, such as scoops, containers, sieves and samplers, need the most care. They should be made in a grade that suits the materials they handle, be easy to clean between batches, and be easy to inspect so that damage, such as a torn sieve mesh, is seen before it becomes a problem.

SS 304 is the standard grade for most accessories that do not touch the product, such as bins, stands and drain traps. SS 316 adds molybdenum, which gives better resistance to chlorides and strong disinfectants, so it is the better choice for product-contact items and for areas cleaned several times a day. Our scoops are made in SS 316, and product-contact accessories can be made in SS 316L on request, the low-carbon version of 316 that holds its corrosion resistance better around welds.

Finish is as important as grade. A matt or mirror finish with ground, polished welds and rounded corners is quick to clean and slow to collect residue. Accessories are usually planned along with the room's cleanroom equipment and cleanroom furniture, so that everything in the room follows the same cleaning routine.