ELGA equips Sheffield Nanoscience centre

The ELGA LabWater CENTRA purification systems – , CENTRA-R 200, CENTRA-RDS with C960 – were recently installed at Sheffield University’s Nanoscience and Technology Centre.

The CENTRA-R 200 and CENTRA-RDS generate up to 18 litres of ultrapure water per minute and boast UV photo-oxidation, a 0.2µm filter for enhanced bacterial control and external deionisation cylinders. The CENTRA range has been designed to eliminate the traditional complex and untidy arrangement of equipment usual of laboratory water purification systems. The reservoir, tubing, pump and reverse osmosis and ultra-violet components are all integrated into one cabinet along with the latest monitoring and control technology – operated via a keypad – to help improve management of the loop system.

Steve Walker, senior experimental officer, said: “The Centre is part of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department and provides state-of-the-art facilities and support for many high-tech businesses in the region, including the largest cleanroom for research into semiconductors, nano-magnetics and other devices in the UK.

“With the continued miniaturisation in the semi-conductor industry, specifications for water quality are always extremely high and our ideas of what we needed from a purification system were very detailed. It had to provide 18.2 M?-cm ultra pure water with multiple purification technologies and a re-circulating loop system to feed around 20-25 outlets and a substantial usage rate.”

With the CENTRA equipment, maintenance is minimal, according to Walker. “The only maintenance we have to do is change the filters and carry out a routine sanitisation when required and engineers visit once a year to service it,’ he said. “It’s a real ‘fit it and forget it’ system and has proved extremely valuable in the Centre’s busy and demanding laboratories and cleanrooms.”