Key Trends of Cleanroom Industry in 2025

  As OpenAI stirs up earthshaking changes to the world and regulations on pharmaceutical and even food industry get more stringent, the demand for more intelligent and competent cleanrooms is expanding. Specifically, cleanroom construction will be boosted and sculptured by the following key trends in 2025 and beyond.

Increased demands for customization
  Every industry is upgrading, with new technologies and products. To cope with the machines to be placed inside the cleanroom, the design and construction of cleanroom will also need to upgrade and to be customized. In recent months, the design of removable doors, wall-mounted LED lights, part-transparent-part-opaque walls, as well as the application of RFU (recirculating filter unit) and PIFF (plenum integrated filter fan) on cleanroom ceiling, tells one same thing: more and more cleanrooms will need to be tailored according to the current or even future production process.

Sustainability and energy conservation
  Sustainable Development Goals was proposed since 2015, sustainability and carbon neutrality have been a global goal ever since. The topic of energy conservation comes again and again during cleanroom design stage. 

  Generally the cleanroom and HVAC system takes a big amount of energy since regulations specify high air exchange rate and strict environment control requirements. With the advancement of technologies, more energy-efficient designs are integrated into cleanroom construction while the clean class is still strictly maintained as required.

  For example, PTFE air filters are introduced to the cleanroom ceilings. This type of filters has lower resistance and allows for more airflow to the cleanroom, therefore saving energy. Air return system is also innovating, with recirculating filter unit (RFU), air return walls and double ceilings to recycle the treated airflow. This way can also save a significant amount of energy. In addition, control of LED lights and fan filters units (FFU) by several zones is also a good way to effectively consume energy. The addition of variable-frequency drive (VFD) in air handling units (AHU) can also efficiently lower the operation costs. 

Adaption to AI development
  Pharmaceutical, semi-conductor and other industries utilize and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to their production process, realizing fully automatic operation. With the introduction of AI and robotics, the production is more intelligently controlled, less workers staying in the cleanroom, dramatically decreasing the source of contamination and heat source. This is extremely helpful in energy conservation and maintaining required parameters of cleanrooms.

  In response to the development of AI and robotics, cleanroom construction is also changing rapidly. Particularly, the entrances to or between cleanrooms normally need to automatically respond to robotics movement. 

Advancement of control system
  It is a growing trend that more and more parameters are controlled in a real-time manner. Apart from traditional parameters like temperature and humidity, an increasing number of customers require that such parameters as particle count, differential pressure, water valve opening degree, filter service life, UV light service life are all monitored in a real-time manner and integrated into one central control system.
  With smarter control system, any failures and the position of failures can be detected immediately and precisely, so as to quickly solve the problems.

Higher quality of cleanroom materials
  New and better materials are applied to cleanroom construction. Over the years, a growing amount of customers ask for High-pressure Laminate (HPL) panels as partition walls of cleanroom, which have higher strength, fire resistance and water-proof performance. Moreover, laminated glass and switchable glass are applied to cleanrooms to meet the special demands of customers.     

  In addition, the cleanroom frames are also required to be stronger enough to place equipment like aircon units on top of cleanroom to save space. 80X80 aluminum alloy frames are specially made to hold heavier machines. Air return panels are also customized to get rid of air risers. In this way, more spaces are saved and the construction process is simplified.

  Increased demands for modular, prefabricated and fast-installation cleanroom construction
Greatness in Simplicity has always been the goal of cleanroom construction. To make the installation process simpler and quicker, the cleanrooms need to use modular and prefabricated structures. This will always be the trend of cleanroom development. Apart from this, the simplification in air conditioning system is also undergoing. Coils integrated to fan filter units covered by insulation materials (CFU) have been applied to cleanroom. This can greatly simplify the air conditioning system installation.

Higher requirements on appearance
  You may be surprised to found that more customers care about the appearance of cleanrooms. They want the cleanrooms to look professional and eye-catching so as to impress their visitors or investors. 

  High windows are adopted in frequencies, enhancing visibility of the cleanrooms, making the cleanrooms bright and clear. 

  The changes are inevitable and we must embrace and adapt to them. Only in this way can we all survive and thrive in the evolving markets.