Services and expertise

Cleanliness is an increasingly important factor in industrial manufacturing and is often a mandatory requirement in all phases of production when it comes to high quality, product safety and yield. Technological advances have made it impossible for most industries to get by without considering cleanliness. These include, for example:

  • Semiconductor industry
  • Electronics
  • Optics
  • Microsystems
  • Aeronautics and space travel
  • Automotive industry
  • Life science industries

At Fraunhofer IPA, an interdisciplinary team has been conducting research for more than 30 years on all issues and challenges along the entire product development chain.

  • When is a certain level of cleanliness indispensable and how can it be achieved economically? Identifying aspects affecting cleanliness is a mandatory requirement for many manufacturing companies. As experts in clean manufacturing, we draw on over 30 years of experience and take current industries and technology trends into account. We give our customers all-round support, from defining a problem right through to implementing the solution. We offer a wide-ranging workshop and training program (on- & off-site) so that we can pass on our knowledge to customers in a targeted manner. We also carry out studies to analyze the industrial feasibility and potential of clean manufacturing solutions.

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  • In clean manufacturing, the term design covers all criteria that must be met by products, rooms, systems, components, semi-finished products, and materials. These include particle emissions, flow guidance, outgassing, ESD properties, chemical and biological resistance, cleanability, and hygienic design.

    Our services include cleanliness specifications, material selection, concepts, drawings and design, as well as airflow simulation and visualization. In doing so, we address the requirements and needs of our project partners in an industry-specific and individual manner.

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  • Production planning ensures the smooth running of production processes that are coordinated in terms of cleanliness. The starting point is always the cleanliness level required for the product in question. The inclusion of all necessary infrastructure, such as cleanrooms/clean zones, minienvironments, production facilities and cleaning steps, as well as product/material flows and the integration of staff is decisive for successful planning.

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  • In clean manufacturing, avoiding contamination and, in most cases, complying with the highest precision requirements, are decisive factors influencing product quality. This calls for tailored cleaning and machining processes capable of meeting the respective demands.

    Often, weak points relevant to cleanliness only come to light when production is up and running. We offer our customers both methodical support as well as extensive analysis options for researching into root causes and optimizing their production processes.

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  • Cleanliness does not stop with the product, but is the result of constant interaction between man, machine, and the environment. This is equally true for cleanliness-specific applications that are data-driven. A continuous, end-to-end data concept is an essential building block when it comes to full traceability and quality control in clean environments.

    We help our customers collect, merge, analyze and use such data, collaborate with them to develop new concepts and support their IT projects.

    Based on this, applications can be supplemented and extended in the future by AI-driven methods, opening up completely new possibilities for analytics and human support. We would be delighted to work with you to develop and implement appropriate concepts and prototypes.

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  • To ensure the required cleanliness of processes and products, diverse investigations and measures are required at the following levels:

    • In-process monitoring
    • Proof of achieved product cleanliness in the customer-supplier relationship based on cleanliness specifications
    • Troubleshooting in the event of quality discrepancies

    Quality assurance measures range from simple quick tests on site at the customer's through cleanliness tests in the Fraunhofer IPA laboratories to comprehensive certification procedures in accordance with internationally recognized regulations.

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  • To ensure that finished products or parts requiring further processing are not re-contaminated after their manufacture and cleaning, adapted packaging and transport concepts are essential.  This calls for end-to-end solutions, from robust reusable packaging to sophisticated long-term packaging for space travel applications.
     

    We offer the following customer services tailored to your requirements:

    • Evaluation of the cleanliness of packaging materials
    • Packaging services in the cleanroom
    • Development and optimization of packaging concepts
    • Implementation of packaging and transport solutions
    • Monitoring and sensor integration