Costing small cleanrooms

Abstract

The quick development of high technology and life sciences industries nowadays sees the need for more and better cleanrooms in modern laboratories expanding dramatically. Cleanrooms, as mechanically intensive facilities that consume large amount of energy to maintain its defined environment demand high capital and operating costs. The owners also expect the cleanrooms to be constructed with less money, less time, yet with higher performance standards and lower running costs. Most cleanroom designs and construction are customized for a wide-ranging scale of operations. To date, not only there is no complete study on cost of the entire lifetime of cleanroom, but also no standard cost system available, which makes it fairly difficult to verify and project the costs of cleanroom design and construction. In order to obtain accurate costing, it is necessary to establish a thoughtful cost framework based on the critical parameters of the facility. This paper defines the critical elements of cleanroom design that would significantly impact the costs of its construction. It also presents the relationships among the elements within the cost model. The cost model is applied to small cleanrooms, which has an increasing demand from entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises. Such small, standard and modular cleanrooms are suitable for individual inventors, small high-tech manufacturers and school laboratories. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.