Properly packed: State-of-the-art cleanroom for dental implants

Reinraum für Zahnimplantate (Copyright: CAT GmbH) / Cleanroom for dental implants (Copyright: CAT GmbH)

Reinraum für Zahnimplantate (Copyright: CAT GmbH) / Cleanroom for dental implants (Copyright: CAT GmbH)

During ongoing production, Dentsply Sirona doubled its existing cleanroom area at the Hanau site, Germany. In the future, the world's largest manufacturer of dental products and dental technologies will pack up to 100,000 individual parts per month under cleanroom conditions in the expanded premises. The fact that the highly sensitive packaging lines for dental implant products had to be kept running during the construction phase was just one of the many challenges that the company had to master together with its service provider CAT Clean Air Technology GmbH during the approximately 10-month project.

By expanding its cleanroom capacity, Dentsply Sirona is responding to the growing global demand for dental implants, which have been manufactured in Hanau since 1993. In the future, a total of 200 square meters of cleanroom area class D will accommodate three packaging lines instead of two – reducing, for example, setup and throughput times. In addition, the plant is now technically state-of-the-art, as Norbert Rabenstein, Managing Director of Dentsply Implants Manufacturing GmbH in Hanau, points out: “For quality assurance, it is essential that our cleanrooms are “state-of-the-art” at all times. This is the only way we can guarantee that our products reach the customer quickly and in an absolutely clean state.”

The fact that connecting the additional cleanroom area to the existing infrastructure would be a challenge that would require a great deal of flexibility and coordination on the part of all parties involved became apparent shortly after the project began in the spring of 2021. Planning and execution had to be adapted after the existing ceiling was removed, as additional cable routes and air ducts were revealed – amongst other things.

Connecting the new cleanroom with the existing one by a breakthrough also required great sensitivity – interruption of production was ruled out at all times. “The coordination of the various trades and work steps proved to be athletic,” the project manager at CAT GmbH sums it up.

Finally, the room pressure in the two controlled areas had to be carefully adjusted to compensate for the pressure gradient in the personnel and material lock and to maintain the overpressure to the adjacent areas. In the future, standard cleanroom conditions will also be ensured by a supply air volume of 7,500 cubic meters per hour and several state-of-the-art Filter Fan Units (FFU) for recirculating air operation. If the cooling of the air handling units is not sufficient during high outside temperatures in summer, the FFUs have additional coolers that flexibly increase the cooling capacity in the cleanrooms.

With the expansion and modernization of its cleanroom area, Dentsply Sirona is well positioned for the future at the Hanau site. Up to 1,700 different end products from the field of implantology can be packaged under cleanroom conditions with the three packaging lines. The necessary requalifications as well as the maintenance are carried out by CAT GmbH.