There is a natural rise and fall of companies in any industry, and this year the cleanroom industry was no different.
For businesses, it was an uncertain year, with the cost of living hitting all areas of business across many countries. Despite the uncertainty, cleanroom companies have still continued innovating and growing.
There is a natural rise and fall of companies in any industry
The 2024 Cleanroom Technology Conference gave a great opportunity to speak to some of the largest companies in the sector about their experiences this year and hear talks that aimed to help them address any trials and tribulations.
Design and build
For design and build companies there was plenty of change in 2024. On a personnel level, longstanding companies AES Clean Technology and Modular Devices both appointed new CEOs, welcoming new eras of growth.
From a business perspective, this year saw the creation of TECHspace, a new cleanroom, dry room and cold room company based in Pennsylvania founded by Ex-CleanSpace Chief Strategy Officer. As well as the fall of WHP Engineering, which went into administration following an "onerous" contract entered into in 2021.
There were many expansions and downsizings as well, with a fair few companies continuing a post-covid acquisition spree. For example, US-based construction expert Hodess Cleanrooms made a big acquisition in Canada, with the purchase of Labworks International. This was following multiple other acquisitions in the previous year.
The cleanroom monitoring industry has been honing in on the problems that clients are encountering time and time again to form the basis of their next innovations
Europe-based renowned cleanroom design and build expert SRBA Group also made the bold leap into the US with the acquisition of Connecticut-based Corporate Construction. SRBA only formed the previous year in 2023 with the merger of Brecon and Muller Afbouw.
Also looking to grow overseas, Japan-based engineering expert Shinryo made its second acquisition in India with the purchase of GMP Technical Solutions. On the flip side of this, Singapore-based AcroMeta has agreed to sell off its controlled environment subsidiary Acromec Engineers.
Using a different avenue to share expertise of another company, Exyte signed a deal to collaborate with JGC on high tech projects in Southeast Asia. The company recently won an award for its work on the Siltronic semiconductor fab project in Singapore.
Born in 1939, Neiger lived an incredible life and his contributions to the cleanroom sector will last well beyond his passing
For semiconductor manufacturer TSMC, the design and build of its production facility in Taiwan was tested by a magnitude 4 earthquake in April. At the time, the company told Cleanroom Technology that personnel were evacuated to non-cleanroom areas but “none of [the earthquakes] reached TSMC’s threshold for evacuating outdoors".
Longstanding Belgium-based ABN Clearoom Technology also had a particularly interesting year, with the creation of its ABN Labs subsidiary, the launch of its first 100% flexible GMP cleanroom wall system, as well as working on its new cleanroom cleaning augmented reality system to be launched in the future called cleanAR.
Among other design and build products launched in 2024 were a new cleanroom airlock product from AES Clean Technology, the new flourless POD from G-CON Manufacturing, a novel “adaptive airflow” application from Aircuity, as well as both an inflatable product and modular product (Modulab) from Total Clean Air.
There were many expansions and downsizings
For training and education needs, the exciting news came from Slovenia that Novartis and Sandoz would support the founding of the Slovenian Cleanroom Society.
Nataša Štirn, Managing Director and co-owner of Slovenia-based cleanroom firm Klimer, spearheaded the launch of the professional association within the framework of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Štirn told Cleanroom Technology that the establishment was supported by Lek, a Sandoz company, and Novartis, both founding members.
PPE
No year will see as much disruption as 2020 in the PPE arena. Saying this, there were huge divestments in this sector in 2024.
The biggest headline of the year was of course the $640m sale of Kimberly-Clark’s PPE business to Ansell. The over half-a-billion acquisition was part of Kimberly-Clark’s $1.5 billion restructuring plan. Kimberly-Clark Professional had just launched a Kimtech Polaris Nitrile Glove in January suitable to be used in up to ISO Class 6 cleanrooms.
Dastex’s CEO, Linda Veryeycken said that this acquisition was “a pity”, explaining that they were both kept the glove industry innovation as competing dominant manufacturers with high consistent quality standards. “They challenged each other for many decades,” she said.
Active in the same markets, Dastex was at the centre of its own acquisition by a private investor in 2023. Now in May 2024, Dastex acquired Norwegian consumables distributor AET, with the first target market following the acquisition being Norway.
The biggest headline of the year was of course the $640m sale of Kimberly-Clark’s PPE business to Ansell
Cleanroom Technology spoke to Vereycken in August who said though the European cleanroom garment market is still somewhat “fragmented”, but this is changing.
The company’s sale was in part to fund an effort to reach beyond their well-established roots in the DACH region to create a fully European contamination control provider. The May acquisition evidences this strategy is well underway.
Micronclean also looked to restructure on a minor level this year. Following the completion of a new cleanroom consumables facility at the start of 2024, the UK-based company has sold its industrial workwear sector to Lindström to focus on the cleanroom market.
The company also announced plans to retarget its effort on a zero-carbon cleanroom laundry facility as part of its new campus site.
Medicom opened a €88m nitrile glove facility in France
Lindstrom also had an innovative cleanroom laundry update from India, as the company worked with Ecolab subsidiary Nalco Water, to use a new water management process to reduce freshwater usage by 56%.
Ansell also made a sustainability switch, removing paper instructions for use (IFUs) and moving to fully digital QR codes. This was following the decision from the European Commission (EC) that removed the requirement that PPE products must be “accompanied” by printed instructions. This was a move that had already been implemented in the Americas.
Finally, no review of the PPE and consumables sector would be complete without mentioning Elis Cleanroom, which expanded with a second laundry in the UK.
Ansell also made a sustainability switch, removing paper instructions for use (IFUs) and moving to fully digital QR codes
The company encountered issues with the original principal contractor falling behind schedule and missing several key deadlines for the UK laundry facility. As a result and had to ask the cleanroom specialist on the project, Guardtech Group, to take over the entire build as principal contractor.
In addition, Elis Cleanroom acquired a reusable cleanroom company Wonway in Malaysia. Malaysia is one of the world’s major producers of nitrile gloves.
In April, Medicom opened a €88m nitrile glove facility in France. The PPE provider opened the facility in response to Europe's dependence on nitrile glove imports, emphasised by the pandemic.
Monitoring
The cleanroom monitoring industry has been honing in on the problems that clients are encountering time and time again to form the basis of their next innovations. Automation is of course becoming one of the main focuses to save money and time.
The man-hours in a repetitive monitoring programme task are an area that could definitely benefit from automation.
Both Syntegon and MBV launched products this year that aimed to address the issue of settle plate handling. Both of the companies launched products that automated settle plate changing. This was helpful in avoiding operators having to come back into the cleanroom at set intervals.
Pharmagraph launched a portable microbial air sample to the market this year with huge digital compatibilities
MBV used the Cleanroom Technology Conference in Birmingham in May to debut the company’s new innovation, the MAS-100 Libra automated settle plate changer, whilst Syntegon launched its Settle Plate Changer (SPC) offering in June. Both of these products come off the back of the new EU GMP Annex 1’s encouragement of automation in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Debuting another innovation, UK-based Pharmagraph also launched a portable microbial air sample to the market this year with huge digital compatibilities.
On the other side of the pond, Texas-based MicronView has partnered with a European distribution firm to expand the reach of its environmental monitoring equipment in the continent.
Cleaning
Another innovative product that has sprung out of the enactment of the new EU GMP Annex 1 is Micronclean’s new range of Annex 1 compliant rotational disinfectants based on patent-protected technology; Alpha Plus and Beta Plus.
A further innovative product of use to those working in cleanrooms, France-based Claranor Pharma launched a passbox decontamination solution that used no chemicals or water, the Pulsed Light PASSBOX.
The solutions works by destroying microorganisms using short, intense light flashes generated by xenon lamps. For cleaning consumables, Contec also opened a plant in the Philippines this year.
A fair few companies have cropped up in recent years focusing on cleanroom cleaning
A fair few companies have cropped up in recent years focusing on cleanroom cleaning. Some of these companies are starting to grow their influence across new regions and applications.
Relative newbie Belgium-based TRU Cleanroom Cleaning made a push into the US with a name change to TRU Global Solutions. Another relatively new company, PharmaProcess also launched a cleaning and disinfection business line for pharmaceutical applications in Italy.
ABN Cleanroom Technology also revealed it is working on an augmented reality cleanroom cleaning solution called CleanAR. The new system will train operators in cleanroom cleaning in an AR version of their facility. Head of Validation at ABN Cleanroom Technology, Michiel Meulemans, told Cleanroom Technology that the project has just started and is in the exploratory phase.
Containment
At the end of the year, the industry received the sad news that industry expert John Neiger had passed away. Born in 1939, Neiger lived an incredible life and his contributions to the cleanroom sector will last well beyond his passing.
The founder of Envair and British Standards Committee member will be missed by many of the industry experts that worked with him over the years.
In further Envair news, the company went through a rebrand in 2024 and the Envair and TCS brands have been part of the Envair Technology group since 2019 and 2020 respectively, will now trade solely as Envair Technology going forward.
Zooming out, it is clear to see that the new product trends in 2024 revolved around automation and the new EU GMP Annex 1 publication
Another cleanroom containment expert who went through a major change in 2024 was Telstar. The pharmaceutical equipment company, which also launched an extra-large BSC for cytometers and robots this year, went through an acquisition by Syntegon.
The two companies have highly complementary isolator and other portfolios, and so far this change has been well received. Jordi Puig, CEO of Telstar, told Cleanroom Technology, that “no major changes are expected regarding Telstar technology”.
Another partnership of a different type was formed in 2020 between Switzerland-based powder handling expert Dec Group and India-based process equipment specialist Bectochem’s containment division. As a partnership in 2024, the joint venture Dec Bectochem has opened a new assembly facility in India to optimise production. Dec Group also launched a new Japan-based subsidiary called Dec Japan.
Trends observed
Zooming out, it is clear to see that the new product trends in 2024 revolved around automation and the new EU GMP Annex 1 publication. There is also a huge amount of ‘geographic juggling’ going on. It will be interesting to see how all of these trends will feed the industry into 2025 and beyond.