William R. Acorn, a Tucson, Ariz.-based HVAC expert, testified in the ongoing cleanroom cancer trial that IBM Corp.'s disk drive plant in San Jose was adequately ventilated, contradicting prior testimony from a plaintiff witness who said the entire facility was negatively pressurized, causing controlled environments to be starved of fresh air.
Editor's note: This article is the first in a two-part series on how customized computer-based courses, called QuickLearns, have revolutionized the way knowledge is transferred at manufacturing plants.
As micro- and molecular-contamination continue to be growing concerns in the semiconductor and microelectronics industries, technologies that combat such threats to processes are gaining greater market acceptance, yielding solid growth—and, most recently a collaboration to the tune of an acquisition.
Steve Wood, chief of emergency preparedness for San Diego County in southern California, is doing what he can to be ready for a bioterrorist attack—or, a plane load of unlucky passengers.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking an increase of $65 million for fiscal year 2005 to boost its food security activities—part of a new interdepartmental program for the defense of the nation's food supply.
FedEx Corp., a global provider of transportation, e-commerce and supply chain management services, is now offering parenteral drug manufacturers a way to ship temperature-sensitive products.
In a move designed to allow greater focus on its core businesses of pharmaceuticals and chemicals, Merck KgaAa has sold its cleanroom and contamination-control product distribution business, VWR International, for $1.68 billion to a private equity firm.
When Jensen Fittings Corp. was sold to Swagelok Co. in January 2001, the purchase of the sanitary fitting and component maker may have been regarded in one of two ways—just another deal in the merger-acquisition trend or a transaction that allowed an autonomous life sciences-based firm to go global and a fluid components manufacturer to diversify even further.
Recently, 60 of the nation's leading scientists, 20 of whom are Nobel Laureates, charged that the Bush Administration manipulated and censored science by "suppressing, distorting and manipulating the work done by scientists at federal agencies."
When I walked into the SEMI Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) European Standards Meeting at a recent SEMICON Europa, I already knew there was considerable global interest in the safe decommissioning and decontamination of cleanroom manufacturing facilities.
That United States Pharmacopeia (USP) regulatory storm you heard brewing for the past five years has finally broken in the form of a number of new regulations and guidelines becoming effective this year.
Significant energy savings potential exists in most cleanroom facilities in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), process cooling, compressed air, and other utilities.
The myriad of highly detailed and repetitive process steps should be enough to justify pursuing an automated cleanroom solution. Now, how do you do it?
Worldwide growth in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, plus a move toward global adaptation of ISO standards, make the particle counter an increasingly important tool for contamination control.
