A Clean Sweep: Cleanroom Moisture Monitoring

Have you ever seen some of the amazing images produced by the Hubble Telescope? Browsing through them, it’s hard to believe that it actually went into orbit with a defect, and for a time, did not perform as intended. But it’s true  – and that defect was caused by a particle less than 1/200 the width of a human hair. How is that possible? The circuitry used to produce such an advanced piece of equipment as the Hubble is, as you might expect, very delicate and precise. PCBs and wiring of that nature – finely-tuned, yet able to withstand the harsh demands of space – need to be developed in an environment that allows them to work exactly as intended, free of any variables like dust, moisture, or other tiny particles. Cleanrooms provide just that type of environment.

There are many factors that go into creating and maintaining a cleanroom environment (and there are many different levels of cleanroom environments, which you can learn more about here): filtration and design are among the most important, and so is monitoring. Without moisture monitoring, any potential breach of the cleanroom environment would not be discovered until later inspection or testing – or potentially not at all. As mentioned in our previous blog on pharmaceutical production, such contaminants can lead to dangerous products. In the case of things like the Hubble and other technical products, contamination can lead to downtime and deficiency costs in the billions or trillions of dollars.

For more information on Devar’s line of moisture monitors and other monitoring products, be sure to visit our website at http://www.devarinc.com!