Seal out the contamination

Carmetec's CleanSeal provides a patented solution to the solving the problem of having an airtight seal in pipework. It is made up of a rubber membrane firmly sandwiched between a set of circular stainless steel plates, capable of withstanding the most rigorous demands of today's cleanrooms. One often used application is providing a reliable seal around sprinkler heads. Initially launched in Sweden in 1996, followed closely by the rest of Scandinavia, the product is now used widely across Europe. Its main market launch took place in 2001, where sales have quickly built up in its home market of Sweden, as well as Finland, Norway and Denmark. Notable new markets in the past 12 months include France, Spain, the UK and Ireland. The product is used by many big-name companies, including Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Fresenius Kabi, Biovitrum, Gyros, the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, ETCM, Novo Nordisk and Holden Installations. The product's key attributes are that it is completely airtight – the membrane provides a durable and airtight seal against differential air-pressure between rooms, as well as absorbing vibration and allowing other pipe movement. It also has a smooth surface, which means it is easy to keep clean and is therefore ideal for cleanroom environments. Sound-bridging is avoided – some cleanrooms have welded pipework penetration to the wall surfaces which leads to vibration and process noises being transmitted across the surface of the wall. In addition, there is easier alignment during pipe installation. Drilling accurately from two sides of a cleanroom wall can be difficult, but the inherent flexibility of the CleanSeal membrane makes the job easier. The fact that it can be threaded on the pipe before fitting against the wall makes it self-aligning. This speed and simplicity of installation leads to greater site efficiency, as well as the removal of the above-mentioned problems. The recently completed Genetech Espana Bulk Powder facility in Pontevedra in Galicia, Spain has many hundreds of CleanSeals in use, where the sterile pipes penetrate a variety of different walls and ceilings in B, C and D graded areas. Whereas the original plan was to have stainless steel transfer boxes at lead-through points, architect Martin Birch at Jacobs Engineering discovered that CleanSeal offered a simple, cost effective and quickly installed alternative to the proposed stainless steel transfer boxes. Range of shapes and sizes CleanSeals come in a variety of shapes and sizes, such as use in circular pipes as well as rectangular lead-throughs. Once the CleanSeal is installed, it is normal to run a silicone bead around the outer edge of the steel plate. Various tailor-made larger seals have been produced, up to and including those for service pipes with a diameter of 1m. Similarly, rectangular versions of the CleanSeal are produced as large as 2m x 2m for process equipment, and in smaller sizes for the support brackets on cantilevered cleanroom work surfaces. Special applications have so far included lead-throughs between cleanrooms and homogenisers, lyophilisers and autoclaves. Multipurpose or multi-pipe plates based on the same principle are also available. As well as being straightforward to install at the new build stage, the seals are ideal for use when additional media are added through an existing cleanroom wall or ceiling. For example, it is extremely easy to fit them over already installed sprinkler units.