11 Jul What is a Pass-Through Chamber? Uses and Benefits
What if there was a way to pass materials between controlled environments without personnel having to enter the room and follow extensive protocols every time? These days, cleanrooms have an efficient solution, and they’re called pass-through chambers. Also known as pass-through boxes or pass-through windows, these spaces are designed to solve these exact issues. In this article, we will define what a pass-through chamber is, why cleanrooms use them, how they can be customized, and more.
What is a Pass-Through Chamber?
A pass through chamber is an enclosed area used to transfer materials between different controlled environments, such as cleanrooms. They are usually placed between two rooms, and their purpose is to reduce the possibility of contamination between spaces. You can think of a pass-through chamber as an efficient solution for transferring items or materials between spaces, as it eliminates the need for personnel to enter the rooms themselves.
Why Do Cleanrooms Use Pass-Through Chambers?
As we mentioned above, cleanrooms use pass-through chambers to prevent contamination. Since people are often the greatest source of contamination to clean spaces, creating a controlled passageway for materials helps keep them sterile.
Their specific use in cleanrooms depends on the application, but it can include things such as transferring sterile tools and materials, moving packaged products, handling sensitive parts, or passing medications and medical equipment.
Some other reasons why cleanrooms use pass-through chambers include:
- Improved Workflow: By providing a specific passageway for materials, these chambers make operations more efficient and reduce the need for personnel to move between environments. This lowers the required use of air showers, gowning, and other contamination control measures.
- Increased Safety and Compliance: Pass-through chambers may help meet safety and regulatory standards by improving the cleanliness of cleanrooms.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Using pass-through chambers may reduce the risk of contamination-related issues, which saves both time and money in the long run.
How Can Pass-Through Chambers Be Customized?
Cleanrooms in different industries will require certain features for their pass-through chambers. Here are a few ways that they can be customized:
- Materials: Some of the most common materials used are stainless steel and glass. Both of these are easy to clean and maintain.
- Size: Pass-through chambers come in various sizes. Some may need to accommodate carts and trays, while others may be designed for smaller items such as tools and instruments.
- HEPA filtration: These spaces may also have air filtration and HEPA filters to ensure that the air inside stays clean.
- UV lighting and other sanitation features: UV lighting is sometimes installed to sanitize the materials or tools inside the chamber. Sanitation features reduce the risk of contamination further by killing microorganisms on the items or materials being transferred.
- Interlock systems: These systems prevent both doors from being open at the same time, and thereby prevent cross-contamination.
This list is not exhaustive, and the customization of pass-through chambers will largely depend on the specific application of the cleanroom it is in.
What Industries Use Pass-Through Chambers?
Pass-through chambers can be used in a wide range of industries, including the following:
- Pharmaceuticals and Biotech: Used for transferring sterile tools, materials, and specimens between rooms.
- Electronics and Semiconductor Manufacturing: Important for transferring sensitive parts, such as microchips, into cleanrooms without introducing contaminants. Such chambers will often include HEPA filters to protect delicate parts.
- Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities: Used to transfer medications and medical equipment between spaces.
- Research Laboratories: Used for handling samples and research materials securely, in order to maintain the integrity of experiments.
The Bottom Line
Pass-through chambers are important for preventing and controlling contamination within cleanrooms. By understanding what they are, and how and why they are used, organizations can select the right pass-through chamber for their needs. Whether you work in pharmaceuticals, food processing, electronics, healthcare, or research, investing in a pass-through chamber with the right specifications can help ensure cleanliness of your environment, and by extension, the success of your operations.
Are you ready to improve contamination control at your facility? Get a free quote from Allied Cleanrooms today and find out how we can build the perfect cleanroom with customized pass-through chambers that meet your specific needs.