Cleanzone Conference presents a line-up of top speakers and trending topics

How will cleanrooms be planned, built and operated in future? What role will be played by digital twins? What demands do new therapies employing highly active substances place on production in the medical field, and what can be done to ensure that products and personnel enjoy optimum protection? Answers to these and other questions will be on offer at the Cleanzone Conference accompanying the Cleanzone trade fair on 23 and 24 October 2018.

With four fascinating topic areas ‘Cleanroom for life’, ‘Upgrade your cleanroom efficiency’, ‘Clean life sciences – the next level’ and ‘Cleanrooms: Modelling the future’, the Cleanzone Conference 2018 delivers expertise for cleanroom operators in fields ranging from life sciences to microtechnology – and it does so for experts and newcomers alike. Participants can book anything from one to four modules with as many as five presentations, all in keeping with their areas of interest.

Cleanroom for life

When customers suddenly demand cleanroom quality, suppliers are often at a loss. Numerous questions arise, including: Does it really have to be a high-level cleanroom? Which cleanroom class is best suited to my production operations? In his presentation, Professor Dr. Horst Weißsieker, a certified expert for the field of cleanroom technology, addresses these very issues while offering tips on finding the right solutions.

Dr. Christian Raiss, a hospital hygiene specialist at Hygiene-Institut AYSID GmbH, reveals the possibilities for obtaining an immediate overview of existing bacterial load: “I'm certain that real-time methods will be playing a major role in future. I’m fascinated by bio-microchips – some of these are even suitable for on-site use in real-time, providing readings directly without any need to send samples into the lab.” As part of the ‘Cleanroom for life’ module, Daniela Freundorfer, an industrial hygiene expert with Schülke & Mayr, will be paying particular attention to personnel in her presentation: “Cleanrooms are being subjected to ever stricter hygiene standards, even as the interpretations of regulatory requirements become harder and harder to decipher. How can proper personnel and production hygiene be leveraged to prevent microbiological contamination?”

Upgrade your cleanroom efficiency

Cleanroom efficiency has many facets. In addition to energy savings, especially through ventilation and air-conditioning technology, efforts to improve efficiency are currently focusing on new software solutions, as these make it possible to simplify processes while optimally linking people and machines, resulting in improved information flows and a reduction in disruptions. Yet efficiency also means creating the precise clean production conditions that are necessary to ensure product quality and personal safety – no more, and no less. All of these aspects are covered in the module ‘Upgrade your cleanroom efficiency’. The roster of speakers here includes Professor Dr.-Ing. Martin Kriegel, a ventilation expert from the Hermann-Rietschel-Institut at the Technical University of Berlin, and Dr. Udo Gommel, a cleanroom technology specialist from Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart.

Clean life sciences – the next level

As a result of highly toxic cytotoxic drugs, new forms of individualised therapy and the development of a new generation of antibiotics, the protection of products and people in cleanrooms is playing an increasingly important role in the medical field. In order to guarantee personal safety, various safety measures are necessary, including closed product transfer systems. The containment specialist Richard Denk from Skan will be discussing this topic in the module ‘Clean life sciences – the next level’. In the same block, Nikolaus Ferstl, Technical Director at University Hospital Regensburg, will be talking about germicidal surfaces, new systems engineering capabilities and innovative software for hygienic and efficient pharmaceutical production.

How can proper cleanroom behaviour be taught, such as for the production of highly toxic substances, and what can be done when it is not possible to integrate training into ongoing production? Sebastian Scheler, a psychologist with Austrian start-up firm Innerspace, explains the advantages on offer from virtual reality in situations such as these.

Cleanrooms: Modelling the future

The use of digital twins for process simulations is becoming ever more important to the field of cleanroom technology, and not just in production – it is equally important when planning, constructing and operating these facilities. Professor Dr.-Ing. Christoph van Treeck, Chair of the Institute of Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Building at RWTH Aachen University, will be devoting his presentation to whether we are BIM ready. Frank Jansen, responsible for building technology and building services engineering at the Association of German Engineers (VDI), delves into the use of the BIM (Building Information Modelling) method for building planning and talks about the opportunities and risks it brings for cleanroom technology.

The industrial landscape is currently undergoing radical changes in which everything is revolving around changed production systems, new markets, alternative technologies, innovative manufacturing processes and new strategies for entering the market. Dr. Udo Gommel from Fraunhofer IPA will be exploring their impact on cleanroom production in the ‘Cleanroom: Modelling the future’ conference block. He explains: “The demand for applications and products, such as high-performance components produced using 3D printers, low-emission automotive drive systems, high-resolution image recognition systems, artificial intelligence and the extremely powerful minuscule semiconductor components these require is growing rapidly. In order to do justice to all these trends and increasing requirements, (ultra-)clean environments, high-precision processes, low-contamination handling technologies and testing and assessment methods are absolutely essential.”