Clean air solution manufacturers Monmouth Scientific’s aluminium modular cleanrooms are supporting satellite experts Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). The outcome guarantees a highly clean environment within which the SSTL Engineering teams can assemble, and test complex optical payloads.
Monmouth Scientific’s experienced team identified the aluminium modular cleanroom as the ideal solution to meet the needs of the team at SSTL, who would be assembling delicate technologies, capable of withstanding the harsh environment of space.
SSTL has been at the forefront of space innovation for over 40 years, delivering customisable mission solutions for earth observation, science, communications, and navigation. These intricate and highly bespoke pieces of technology provide visual information and play a vital role in the development of communications between space and earth.
The systems can be used for observation of earth, the moon or other planetary investigation, to gather weather data, for deep-space exploration and navigation.
Two ISO Class aluminium modular cleanrooms installed at SSTL’s headquarters in Guildford, include a 6m x 5m satellite engineering zone, LED lighting panels throughout and 4m wide Entry/Exit Points to allow for the efficient movement of large equipment in and out of the manufacturing cell.
Project lead Andrew Norton said: “These genuinely look like a quality lab and by using them as manufacturing cells we have been able to apply good practices from the manufacturing world.”
Norton continued: “We’ve been able to impart flexibility and agility into the system that allows these manufacturing cells to be used across payloads that are highly bespoke and rarely the same.”
The rooms also include a total of four CAMT2000 clean air modules, guaranteeing positive pressure and an ISO 14664-1 clean environment. The CAM unit filters air as it enters the room through HEPA filters (99.997% efficient at 0.3 microns) before creating the positive pressure in the environment, providing up to 1800m of HEPA filtered air, a total of 60 clean air changes per hour. Based on initial validation reports, and particle counts, the two cleanrooms achieve an ISO Class 5 environment, containing less than 100 particles (0.5 microns or larger in diameter) per cubic foot of air.
The team at Monmouth Scientific were engaging throughout the entire process and provided a cost-effective solution to our requirements
For some of the extremely complex processes, SSTL also required controlled zones within the cleanroom to an even cleaner, ISO Class 4 level. The Circulaire HLFT1200 Horizontal laminar flow cabinets installed in the cell guarantee a particle freeworking environment within which to work, more than satisfying the cleanliness requirements and providing the very best protection.
“The team at Monmouth Scientific were engaging throughout the entire process and provided a cost-effective solution to our requirements,” added Norton.
The cleanroom structures are constructed from a smooth profile aluminium framework with aluminium composite and clear non-break polycarbonate created window panes. Entirely reconfigurable, the solution’s modularity means they can be extended to suit SSTL’s future requirements and project demand.
