Netherlands-based Kuijpers has completed a mammoth cleanroom maintenance task for the applied research organisation TNO.
At TNO's facility in Delft, all of the cleanroom ventilation was due for renewal.
This was a huge task that required 421 fan coil units be replaces with high-quality, energy-efficient and sustainable modern models.
The big ask from TNO was that the research in the cleanroom could not be delayed during these works.
As of May 2024, Kuijpers installed the very last new ventilation unit according to schedule, completing the project to the satisfaction of all parties with no delay to the research.
The preparation took just as much time as the execution
Planning and execution
"Kuijpers took on the challenge, prepared the entire operation and completed it with flying colours and according to plan," the company stated.
The Netherlands-based company is an expert in the design, build, operation and maintenance of controlled facilities.
The Project Manager from Kuijpers, Vincent van der Molen explained that the detail plan was the reason for the project's success. “The preparation took just as much time as the execution," he said.
We were aware that there were not many parties that could take up our demand to 'keep the shop open'
"That was entirely in line with expectations," van der Molen explained. "TNO conducts very dust-sensitive studies. Some have been running for years, you can’t just stop them for eight weeks. At TNO’s request, we drew up a detailed plan of approach in which we described how we would keep the nuisance to a minimum.”
According to client Franco Brouwer (Technical Coordinator at TNO), the Kuijpers plan was the best answer to the question that TNO had put to the market. “We were aware that there were not many parties that could take up our demand to 'keep the shop open'. Certainly not in combination with our other conditions: installing sustainable, energy-efficient and high-quality equipment and a full-time project manager who could relieve us during the project. The Kuijpers plan almost immediately gave us the most confidence."
Delivery of the units
That trust was in the many details that Kuijpers included in the plan of approach. “We described every step we wanted to take,” Vincent explained. “We were very specific about that. Take the delivery of the units. These are not small boxes, you are talking about equipment of an average of 120 by 60 centimetres. You have to organise the reception, the cleaning, the internal transport and the installation well to make everything run smoothly. So we put that on paper, including the number of people who would be involved.”
Different levels of difficulty
Another crystallised component that Kuijpers included in the plan of approach was the different levels of difficulty per room. Kuijpers project coordinator Sven van der Water was closely involved in this. “We already knew that there was no such thing as ‘standard’ here. We could place some new filter fan units directly above the ceilings as stand-alone units. So fairly easy. But with others, we had to completely build them in.”
This realisation was met with applause at TNO. Brouwer still remembers that he and Kuijpers applied a colour system to indicate which units fell into which difficulty category.
TNO and Kuijpers applied a colour system to indicate which units fell into which difficulty category
“That way we knew exactly what had to be done in which space," Brouwer said. "And whether the research could continue unhindered. Or whether we had to schedule a short period of standstill, because that sometimes turned out to be unavoidable. But thanks to the insight into the approach and complexity, we were able to keep those periods as short as possible.”
Daily point of contact
The project was directed by Kuijpers Project Manager, Huig van der Plas, who was present full-time at the project location at the request of TNO.
Brouwer said: “We ourselves could not combine the coordination of this project with our daily work. That is why Huig assisted us for many months as the point of contact for everything related to the filter fan units.”
Image credit: Kuijpers