ISO 7 Cleanroom Design-Build

The challenge

Advanced Energy needed a 5,000 SF ISO 7 cleanroom delivered inside a larger multi-year campus renovation, on an aggressive schedule, with no margin for rework. Certification requirements do not negotiate: the room either holds its particle count, pressure relationships, temperature, and humidity, or it does not get used.

The approach

ASE carried mechanical responsibility from concept through certification — design, construction documents, installation, and commissioning support under one contract. The make-up air and pressurization strategy was designed around how the room would be operated and maintained for the next twenty years, not only how it would perform on certification day. Execution was coordinated across the owner, the general contractor, the controls contractor, the TAB contractor, and the cleanroom certification team.

Mechanical scope

• Custom make-up air unit with humidification and tight temperature and humidity tolerance
• Room pressurization and cascade to adjacent spaces
• Process cooling and process gas distribution
• General and process exhaust
• Controls scope definition and coordination with the controls contractor
• TAB coordination, startup, commissioning, and certification support

Operational constraint

The cleanroom was built inside an active manufacturing campus undergoing simultaneous renovation, against a fixed certification date at the end of an 8-month construction window.

Result

The space was commissioned and certified on schedule in June 2023. A year into operation, the cleanroom had run with no downtime and no conditions threatening certification. Advanced Energy continues to rely on ASE for ongoing mechanical service of the cleanroom and its advanced manufacturing systems — the people who designed the room, set the make-up air unit, and dialed in the pressurization are the same ones servicing it today.