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Positive pressure cleanrooms are used in the electronics, medical and pharmaceutical industries to prevent the ingress of dust or other particles. Conversely in industries that produce nasty odours, negative pressure may be used to keep smells in.
 

Pressure Measurement 

The most common instrument for measuring this differential pressure is the Magnehelic gauge.  (These days, although the Magnehelic is still a huge seller for Homershams, there are many digital alternatives too).
 
As you might imagine, the amount of pressure differential is very small; typically in the region of 30 to 60 Pa, or 0.03 to 0.06 kPa.
 

Importance of Calibration 

In pharmaceutical manufacturing, there is no room for error.  Customer health depends upon perfectly executed production, such that every process must be checked and verified.
 
All processes ‘drift’ over time and calibration is the way to ensure that these changes are corrected and accounted for.  Laboratory accreditation ensures that the lab performing calibrations performs to internationally accepted best practice and that their equipment, techniques and staff all conform.
 
The Homershams laboratory has been IANZ accredited for pressure since 1980.
 

Special Low Pressure Challenges 

So while initially delighted that our pharmaceutical customer required accredited calibration, we rapidly became aware that while our labs capabilities were excellent up to 70 MPa, we could not handle the requirements of a calibration at almost 1 million times less than this with our current equipment. We therefore purchased new equipment allowing us to service this customer and others to come.
 

Customers Premises