A new £2 million cleanroom suite has entered operation in the UK. Located at King’s College London’s (KCL) Strand Campus, the project comprises state-of-the-art cleanrooms and optics labs designed and installed by Clean Room Construction (CRC).
The new cleanrooms form part of the London Centre for Nanotechnology, and the facilities will be run by the Photonics and Nanotechnology Group in the Department of Physics.
“This new suite of laboratories is an important expansion of our photonics and nanotechnology research and will strengthen our ability to deliver advances in this strategically important research area," said KCL Physics lecturer, Dr James Millen.
On schedule
CRC designed and installed an atomic layer deposition cleanroom facility and two optics labs. The company delivered the project at the Strand site on schedule.
The two-stage design and build project, which has been integrated into the university’s IT, fire alarm and security systems, included Class 5 and Class 6 cleanrooms with shared changing room and service chase.
Bill Luckhurst, KCL’s Facilities Manager/Research Technician from the Department of Physics, commented: “We knew we needed three key components when we were looking for the right company to work collaboratively with us to design and deliver this project within a busy teaching and learning environment: experience, innovation and reliability."
Luckhurst said all the work had to be carried out while the university continued to function, too. "Clean Room Construction had a client-focussed approach from start to finish and ticked all the boxes. We can all be proud of the end result," he commented.
“Clean Room Construction is very proud to have collaborated with the university to deliver these first-class facilities," said Steve Lawton, CRC’s Managing Director. "These new laboratories will enable King’s to expand and progress their research in new ways with academic researchers and industry leaders and also to establish new collaborations and opportunities for the next generation of students and researchers," he concluded.
The site officially opened on 3 October at the Departments of Physics.