A clean room is a special kind of environmental control that can control factors such as the number of particles, humidity, temperature and static electricity in the air to achieve specific cleanliness standards. Clean room is widely used in high-tech industries such as semiconductors, electronics, pharmaceuticals, aviation, aerospace, and biomedicine.
1. The composition of clean room
Clean rooms include industrial clean rooms and biological clean rooms. Clean rooms are composed of clean room systems, clean room process systems, and secondary distribution systems.
Air cleanliness level
A level standard for dividing the maximum concentration limit of particles greater than or equal to the particle size considered per unit volume of air in a clean space. Domestically, clean rooms are tested and accepted in the empty, static, and dynamic states, in accordance with the "Clean Room Design Specifications" and "Clean Room Construction and Acceptance Specifications".
Cleanliness core standards
The continuous stability of cleanliness and pollution control is the core standard for testing the quality of clean room. The standard is divided into several levels according to factors such as regional environment and cleanliness. Commonly used are international standards and domestic regional industry standards. The environmental levels of clean rooms (areas) are divided into class 100, 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000.
2. Clean room level
Class 100 clean room
An almost dust-free environment with only a very small amount of particles in the air. The indoor equipment is sophisticated and personnel wear professional clean clothes for operation.
Cleanliness standard: The number of dust particles with a diameter greater than 0.5µm per cubic foot of air shall not exceed 100, and the number of dust particles with a diameter greater than 0.1µm shall not exceed 1000. It is also said that the maximum number of dust particles allowed per cubic meter (≥0.5μm) is 3500, while dust particles ≥5μm are required to be 0.
Scope of application: Mainly used in production processes with extremely high cleanliness requirements, such as large-scale integrated circuits, high-precision optical devices and other manufacturing processes. These fields need to ensure that products are produced in a dust-free environment to avoid the impact of particles on product quality.
Class 1,000 clean room
Compared with the class 100 clean room, the number of particles in the air has increased, but it still remains at a low level. The indoor layout is reasonable and the equipment is placed in an orderly manner.
Cleanliness standard: The number of dust particles with a diameter greater than 0.5µm in each cubic foot of air in a class 1000 clean room shall not exceed 1000, and the number of dust particles with a diameter greater than 0.1µm shall not exceed 10,000. The standard for a Class 10,000 clean room is that the maximum number of dust particles allowed per cubic meter (≥0.5μm) is 350,000, and the maximum number of dust particles ≥5μm is 2,000.
Scope of application: Applicable to some processes with relatively high air cleanliness requirements, such as the manufacturing process of optical lenses and small electronic components. Although the cleanliness requirements in these fields are not as high as those in class 100 clean rooms, a certain air cleanliness still needs to be maintained to ensure product quality.
Class 10,000 clean rooms
The number of particles in the air increases further, but it can still meet the needs of some processes with medium cleanliness requirements. The indoor environment is clean and tidy, with appropriate lighting and ventilation facilities.
Cleanliness standard: The number of dust particles with a diameter greater than 0.5µm in each cubic foot of air shall not exceed 10,000 particles, and the number of dust particles with a diameter greater than 0.1µm shall not exceed 100,000 particles. It is also said that the maximum number of dust particles allowed per cubic meter (≥0.5μm) is 3,500,000, and the maximum number of dust particles ≥5μm is 60,000.
Scope of application: Applicable to some processes with medium air cleanliness requirements, such as pharmaceutical and food manufacturing processes. These fields need to maintain a low microbial content and a certain air cleanliness to ensure the hygiene, safety and stability of the product.
Class 100,000 clean room
The number of particles in the air is relatively large, but it can still be controlled within an acceptable range. There may be some auxiliary equipment in the room to maintain air cleanliness, such as air purifiers, dust collectors, etc.
Cleanliness standard: The number of dust particles with a diameter greater than 0.5µm in each cubic foot of air shall not exceed 100,000 particles, and the number of dust particles with a diameter greater than 0.1µm shall not exceed 1,000,000 particles. It is also said that the maximum number of dust particles allowed per cubic meter (≥0.5μm) is 10,500,000, and the maximum number of dust particles ≥5μm is 60,000.
Scope of application: Applicable to some processes with relatively low air cleanliness requirements, such as cosmetics, certain food manufacturing processes, etc. These fields have relatively low requirements for air cleanliness, but still need to maintain a certain degree of cleanliness to avoid the impact of particles on products.
3. Market size of clean room engineering in China
At present, there are few companies in China’s clean room industry that are technologically advanced and have the strength and experience to undertake large projects, and there are many small-scale companies. Small companies do not have the ability to conduct international business and large-scale high-level clean room projects. The industry currently presents a competitive landscape with a high degree of concentration in the high-level clean room engineering market and a relatively dispersed low-level clean room engineering market.
Clean rooms are widely used, and different industries have different requirements for clean room grades. The construction of clean rooms needs to be combined with the industry and specific production processes of the owner. Therefore, in clean room engineering projects, only companies with leading technology, strong strength, remarkable historical performance and good image have the ability to undertake large projects in different industries.
Since the 1990s, with the continuous development of the market, the entire clean room industry has gradually matured, the technology of the clean room engineering industry has stabilized, and the market has entered a mature period. The development of the clean room engineering industry depends on the development of the electronics industry, pharmaceutical manufacturing and other industries. With the industrial transfer of the electronic information industry, the demand for clean rooms in developed countries in Europe and the United States will gradually decrease, and their clean room engineering industry market will shift from maturity to decline.
With the deepening of industrial transfer, the development of the electronics industry has increasingly shifted from developed countries in Europe and the United States to Asia and emerging countries; at the same time, with the continuous improvement of the economic level of emerging countries, the requirements for medical health and food safety have increased, and the global clean room engineering market has also continued to move towards Asia. In recent years, the IC semiconductor, optoelectronics, and photovoltaic industries in the electronics industry have formed a large industrial cluster in Asia, especially in China.
Driven by downstream electronics, pharmaceuticals, medical treatment, food and other industries, China's clean room engineering market share in the global market has increased from 19.2% in 2010 to 29.3% in 2018. At present, China's clean room engineering market is developing rapidly. In 2017, the scale of China's clean room market exceeded 100 billion yuan for the first time; in 2019, the scale of China's clean room market reached 165.51 billion yuan. The scale of my country's clean room engineering market has shown a linear increase year by year, which is basically synchronized with the world, and the overall global market share has shown an increasing trend year by year, which is also related to the significant improvement of China's comprehensive national strength year by year.
The "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long-term Goals for 2035" clearly focuses on strategic emerging industries such as new generation information technology, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, new energy vehicles, green environmental protection, aerospace, marine equipment, etc., accelerates the innovation and application of key core technologies, and accelerates the development of industries such as biomedicine, biological breeding, biomaterials, and bioenergy. In the future, the rapid development of the above high-tech industries will further drive the rapid growth of the clean room market. It is estimated that the scale of China's clean room market is expected to reach 358.65 billion yuan by 2026, and will achieve a high growth rate of 15.01% at an average annual compound growth rate from 2016 to 2026.
Post time: Feb-24-2025