As a business owner, you are always looking for new and better ways to produce quality products. You know that defective products will cost your company money, but you don’t have a ton of money to invest in your facility.
So what do you do?
If your company requires a sterile, clean work environment as part of your production process… testing, manufacturing, assembly or packaging...a laminar flow workbench may be just what you need.
A laminar flow bench (LFB) is an enclosed workbench designed to prevent contamination of particle sensitive materials. In
Typically, an LFB will come with a Class 100 HEPA filter, which means that there should not be more than 100 particles (0.5 microns or larger) per cubic foot of air.
As a frame of reference, the ambient air outside in a typical city environment contains 35,000,000 particles per cubic meter, 0.5 mm and larger in diameter. This gives you an idea of how clean the air is moving through the work area of the enclosed bench.
Laminar flow workbenches were designed to supplement clean rooms, which can be costly to build. Using an LFB can be a cost-effective way of expanding production for companies that aren’t ready to build a clean room or increase the size of an existing one.
Laminar flow workbenches are used in applications where clean air and a sterile work environment are necessary to prevent contamination of parts, samples or materials. Typical applications include:
Medical and Research Laboratories - These types of laboratories often require sterile environments to prevent airborne contamination of experiments and samples. In some cases, a
UV germicidal lamp is used to sterilize the interior and contents before usage to prevent contamination of experiments from bacteria, viruses and protozoa. The lamp is then turned off while the laminar flow hood is turned on to prevent the worker from being exposed to stray ultraviolet light emissions. If you fumes are produced as part of your lab process, you may need a fume hood. Learn whether a ducted or ductless fume hood is best for your business.
Medical Equipment and Implant Assembly - For obvious reasons, every piece of medical equipment and implant device or part has to be sterile. Laminar flow workbenches are used in the manufacturing, assembly and packaging processes to keep dust particles off and contamination from happening.
In recent years, the use of LFBs has spread to other specialized applications, such as:
In the years to come, as innovation continues and new industries and products are developed, more unique applications will be found for the use of laminar flow benches.