Materials of construction: Flooring material. Hygienic requirements

In technology fields with a high demand in hygienic quality as food, pharmaceutics and health care, construction materials implemented in specific applications need to be assessed for their suitability for the defined hygienic environments. Due to the large surface area exposed to the hygienically controlled environment, especially flooring systems get into the focus in regards of their suitability for hygienic processing areas. Several aspects have to be considered for an appropriate material selection: How is the cleanability of particulate contamination? Is the selected flooring material resistant against later used cleaning and disinfectant agents? What about microbiological growth using organic-based materials as for example epoxy-based resins? How many particles are generated if a dolly with polymer wheels passes the flooring surface? How can this aspect be measured in a standardized manner? The presentation shows standardized procedures for testing and classifying materials with uniform sample preparation and measurement procedures. A possible approach for the evaluation of the cleanability of material surfaces will be given. The assessment of the chemical resistance is done according to ISO 2812-1. The assessment of the biological resistance is done according to ISO 846. The particle emission and all followed standardized classification procedures are laid down in the new guideline VDI 2083 part 17. The test and classification allow a fast material screening and comparison. The resulting material classification numbers are entered into the database www.cleanmanufacturing.fraunhofer.de and www.ipa.csm.com of the Fraunhofer industrial alliance CSM - cleanroom suitable materials to allow the tested products to be directly compared with one another. This enables a material selection already in the planning phase of a hygienic processing area.