Air Shower

WEIBER air showers are self-contained units, installed at the entrance of a clean room and other controlled environment chambers for minimizing the entry of dust particles and other particulate matters into the working area. The material handling air shower is designed to provide and maintain clean room conditions for research applications and particle sensitive manufacturing processes. These energy efficient units are fully self-contained and well equipped to provide and sustain a highly sterile working environment. Our versatile air showers are quite adept at controlling the level of contamination for particle sensitive processes such as disc drive and semiconductor manufacturing, pharmaceutical drug testing and for research applications involving molecular biology and biochemical experiments, cell and tissue culture experiments etc.

They are available in both standard and customized designs to suit the requirements of the industry. The entire air shower assembly is HEPA/ULPA filtered, pre-wired and tested, ready to use with a simple plug-in, therefore providing an unmatched ease of operation. Moreover, the use of high quality construction materials ensures unparalleled manufacturing quality, whereas the highly efficient blowers and motors ensure long lasting dependable results.

3 types of configurations are available:

• One side flow: The unit allows one-way operation, with the clean side door locked and the grey side door unlocked at the idle state. This mode of operation helps in controlling the flow of traffic in and out of the clean room for maintaining maximum sterility in the working area.
• Two side flow: The unit allows both side flows, allowing the air showers to be activated in both the directions. The user can exit through the clean room door or the grey side door, without compromising the sanctity of the clean air environment. This mode of operation prevents the egress of harmful contaminants from the clean room to the outside environment, making the unit particularly useful in pharmaceutical industries, animal research laboratories and other applications that require working with harmful and biohazardous substances.
• Tower flow: The flow is from the upper roof of the shower. Air shower particle removing efficiency

Operating Principle:

One side flow: Our 21 CFR compliant air showers are designed to eliminate the contaminating particles from the skin surfaces and clothes of the personnel before they can enter the clean room. They feature top mounted pre-filters and HEPA filters for filtration of circulated air and efficient blowers and air nozzles for ejection of the filtered air. The air entering the air shower cubicle is forced by the blowers through the filter assembly. The efficient filter assembly entraps the contaminating particles 0.1- 0.3 microns in size or larger. The filtered air is then ejected through the nozzles at appropriate face velocities into the air shower. These turbulent air streams are directed in a downward flow to produce enough shearing, wash-down effect for loosening and elimination of dust particles. The dispersed dust particles and other particulate matters migrate with the air stream and re-enter the pre-filter and blower assembly and are continuously filtered and recirculated, for maintaining highly sterile working environments.

Two side flow: The two-way operation of our laboratory air showers allows the air showers to be activated in both the directions to prevent the release of hazardous substances from the controlled environment to the outside, while maintaining clean room conditions within the working chamber. Our two-way material handling industrial air showers are particularly useful in animal research laboratories and pharmaceutical industries for containment of harmful microbes and other hazardous substances. Since only one door can be opened at a time, the release of contaminating particles from the air shower cubicle is effectively controlled in both directions.

Tower flow: Both the doors of our material handling Tower flow air showers are interlocked and magnetically operated. They are permanently energized and open instantly when the open door push button is pressed. Once the user enters the air shower cubicle, he/she can start the shower cycle from the inside. The shower cycle is programmable and can be set as per the requirements of the industry. Both the doors of the unit remain locked till the shower cycle continues, to prevent the entry of external contaminants while the air shower is operational. Once the Tower flow air shower cycle is completed, the personnel can exit through the exit door. The one-way mode of operation allows the user to enter the air shower cubicle, but he/she cannot exit through the entrance door, therefore controlling the traffic patterns into and out of the controlled environment chamber. Moreover, the pre-purge function of our modular air showers allows the unit to self-clean in a power-on mode. The pre-purge time is also programmable and can be set between 0-3 minutes. Air shower principle is based on subjecting the personnel through adequate velocity of clean air coming through a pre filter assembly.
The air present in the air shower cubicle is continuously circulated through the filter assembly, comprising of pre-filters and HEPA filters. The filter assembly physically entraps the contaminating particles and removes them from the air circulation. The efficient fans and blowers blow the filtered air into the air shower cubicle through adjustable nozzles at appropriate face velocities. The turbulent air streams produce enough shearing effect to loosen the dust particles and other particulate matters from the external surfaces, causing their wash down with the air stream. The air shower cubicle is maintained at a slightly higher pressure as compared to the outside to prevent the contaminating particles from entering the cubicle when the unit is at rest. Air Shower specifications are in accordance with the US Federal Standards.

Construction Details:

Our air showers use heavy industrial grade stainless steel (SS304, SS-316) as construction materials. The internal surfaces are laminated and available in attractive finishes. The unit is provided with interlocked and magnetically operated doors on either side of the air shower cubicle. The doors are made of aluminum panels and have clear view glass/acrylic windows for increased visibility. The compartment access panels are made of aluminum panel and are hinged for ease of operation. Air shower room is a closed cubicle with adjustable nozzles air showers designed for clean room applications.

Filter Assembly:

Our air showers are equipped with top mounted pre-filters and HEPA filters for the removal of particulate matters as small as 0.3 microns in size with a filtration efficiency of more than 99.97%. The pre-filters can effectively remove around 85% of the particulate matters, therefore reducing the contaminant load on the HEPA filters and increasing their efficiency and life span. The filtered air is released through adjustable nozzles, arranged in a uniform pattern on the walls and ceilings. The prefilter unit is fully washable and is made up of non-woven synthetic polyester, whereas the easy to clean HEPA filters are made up of glass pleated non-woven fabric filter.

Control Unit:

The unit is controlled through a programmable solid state circuit control system, located at the junction box of the unit. The junction box is a tamper proof enclosure that houses emergency setting buttons for switching off of the equipment in response to audio visual alarms. The control unit houses the operation timer and nozzle adjustment buttons. Our air showers use microprocessor based controllers for various set parameters and for the detection of any errors or deviations from the set parameters.

Motor and Blower Assembly:

The motor and blower motors are statically and dynamically balanced and have permanently lubricated bearings for long lasting and trouble free operation. They bear ISI marking and are rated at 1/5 HP. The blower access panel is located at the side of the air shower unit.

Illumination:

Our air showers use top mounted fluorescent lights for adequate illumination of the shower cubicle. The fluorescent lights panel is concealed at the upper portion of the unit and provides a minimum illumination of 800 lux. The lighting arrangement conforms to the US Federal standards.

Programmable Operation:

The material handling air showers from Weiber use microprocessor based controllers for maintaining optimum conditions of temperature and illumination. The programmable solid state circuit control system located at the junction box of the air shower facilitates adjustment of the air nozzles and operation timer from 0-9,990 seconds. The junction box also houses an emergency setting button that allows switching off of the equipment with audio and visual alarms.