Modular buildings can help you save on your energy use with their superior insulation and other energy efficient options such as efficient lighting. When it comes to insulation, our modular walls feature an inner core that improves insulation properties, meaning modular buildings will stay warm with lower heating requirements when it is cold out and stay cool with lower air conditioning requirements when it is hot outside.

In terms of lighting, we optimize energy usage  with our selection of efficient lighting, such as T8 and T5 style lights. We can also go over your building plans and implement lighting calculations in order to situate an array of lights that will most effectively and efficiently light a workspace. We also offer lighting controls and energy savers such as motion sensor controls. These aren’t necessarily intrinsic to the modular building itself, but are useful additions for improving energy efficiency.

With more efficient lighting options, and a well insulated modular building that will keep down your heating and cooling costs, the combination of these improvements can help you lower your yearly energy bill and save on costs.  

Thanks to the energy-saving properties of modular buildings, and their reusability and recyclability, they are considered a green construction process. This sustainable construction practice is quickly becoming the model to follow in the 21^st century.

In a traditional construction scheme in which the designer party works separately from the builder party, there is a potential for miscommunication and coordination issues. Perhaps the designer makes a mistake in the design and the builder runs into difficulties, or maybe the builder makes a mistake in accordance with the design and corrections have to be made that way.

One of the parties may fail to communicate to the other an important aspect to the project, and if the project is delayed due to an error, it could be possible for the multiple parties to blame each other and attempt to dodge responsibility, making it more difficult to get the project completed. These delays and/or errors can also increase costs and unneccessary waste by causing resource misallocations and the resulting corrections.

Design-build seeks to eliminate these conflicts by making one sole contractor the designer and builder. If there are any problems during the duration of the project, the design-build contractor is solely responsible and is charged with getting the project back on track.

Design-build also seeks to reduce costs by streamlining the construction process and eliminating unnecessary waste that is the result of miscommunication and miscalculation. The design-build contractor has the advantage of being in control of both the design and build process, so design, resource allocation, manufacturing and construction can all be monitored very closely and coordinated.

At Allied Modular we use the design-build approach with our modular buildings. We work with you from designing the project and coming up with a layout that will fit your needs, to building and completing the project at the site itself. We assume responsibility for making sure the project is completed on time and that it meets your standards. Our modular building processis conducted under controlled indoor conditions in our factory, where building materials are used and reused as efficiently as possible, cutting down on time and waste, which brings down costs. And in the end if it saves the customer a headache from dealing trying to coordinate and keep accountable multiple contractors, then we’ve done our job.

The first article touches on the growing interest and expanding markets in modular housing and discusses the green aspects of the technology.

Among the benefits touted by the article, modular construction allows for more efficient utilization of resources in controlled factory settings, with materials often re-circulated if they aren’t used. Another point was that less wood is being used in this construction process, which goes easier on forests.

Also among the noted benefits were lower costs, due to increased efficiency, which many builders use to opt for other energy-saving features such as lighting and efficient energy. Also construction times lower. Many customers are looking for their efficient buildings with their cost savings and green attributes. The whole article is worth a read if you’re interested in green housing and where its going.

The other article focuses on a push for builders towards a renewal for prefabricated building techniques. They say “renewal” because prefabricated building techniques have been around for a while, but due to technology gains these last couple of years, the process has become much more efficient and produces buildings of a higher quality.

The article lists a number of advantages to prefabricated (or now more commonly called modular) construction. Among the advantages are less of a reliance on good weather conditions, the ability to supervise labor easier, the ability to provide easier access to tools and the reduced need for material deliveries to a construction site.

In short, modular construction makes the construction process much more efficient (in cost, time, and resources) and centralized, saving companies and clients time, money, and frustration. Definitely another article to check out.

The US FDA has not made any official comment on the revised standards, but the Division of Manufacturing and Product Quality within FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has commented that they are supportive of efforts to improve standards and encourage them to be followed internationally.

Since the new standards mark such a noticeable departure from previous standards, more opinions will undoubtedly arise as to the effectiveness of the new standards. The standards feature a procedure of random sampling that may force manufacturers like pharmaceutical producers to update their protocols for sampling and testing a room’s cleanliness.

Some manufacturers may object to these new procedures on various grounds, but the experts behind the updated standards have argued that the statistics have shown that the new approach is more beneficial and have published a paper to prove their point. Time will tell how the overall set of guidelines is received by the various industries to be affected.

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Critical Evironments & Cleanrooms
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Workers should wear full protective clothing and gear such as hoods, specially designed jumpsuits, shoe coverings or boots, and whatever else is necessary to conduct your processes with. When dealing with chemicals that could be hazardous, goggles should be used. Face masks and shields should be used for sensitive processes that could lead to breaking glass or explosions. Always use gloves to handle dangerous chemicals. Gloves prevent shedding skin to get into the clean room environment anyway, so they are usually recommended whatever the case. Some processes may even require a respirator, so be sure to have the necessary training and qualification to use those.

It is good to know the layout of the cleanroom and to know where the necessary safety equipment is such as safety showers, fire extinguishers, eye wash stations, and emergency shut off switches. It is beneficial to know what emergency signals and alarms indicate, and where to evacuate if need be. Have staff maintain familiarity with hazardous gas monitoring equipment and any alarms that might indicate dangerous air conditions.

Processes in cleanrooms can often involve chemical handling such as possibly dangerous acids, bases, solvents, carcinogens, and cryogenics. Understand the materials and their use and know the proper procedures of handling and disposing of such materials. If you come into contact with such a chemical, flush the area with water for 15 minutes and remove any contaminated clothing. Hydrofluoric acid can be especially dangerous if eye or skin contact occurs. Such a substance can burn through tissue and even bone. As stated above, rinse any affected area with water and get medical help if emergencies arise.

Chemical processes should be conducted under fume hoods or in wet benches if they pose the risk of splashing or fuming. Chemicals should be carefully labeled and stored. All chemicals and mixtures should be disposed of and cleaned and hazardous waste removed.

These points aren’t exhaustive. Make sure you understand all of your safety precautions and instructions, as well as the rest of the workers that use a cleanroom and work with processes inside. Following some of these basic points will help to eliminate many potential hazards however.

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Class 10-100K Cleanrooms

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An example of scientific research that would require a clean room would be when scientists grow cultures that would be ruined if bacteria were to contaminate them. In manufacturing, there are many components that require a clean, uncontaminated environment to be made in, such as microprocessors which could be inhibited with the slightest trace of a foreign particle such as dust or dirt. Generally, employees who work in clean rooms are required to follow specific guidelines for keeping out external contaminants. They will often wear protective clothing with hood coverings, gloves, and masks. They will also pass through air showers to get rid of any particles from the outside before stepping into the clean room environment.

Clean rooms come in several forms, depending on the requirements of the facility. Some clean rooms are hard-walled facilities that are permanent, and then some are flexible soft-walled facilities which can be easily transported, such as for medical emergencies. Some facilities are modular in construction, and can be broken down and moved or kept permanent, depending on preferences.

Clean rooms follow a grading scale that measures the amount of allowable contaminant particles in the air. The ISO system starts at ISO 1, which allows 10 or fewer particles per every 0.5 micrometer cubic area. The allowable particles increase by a factor of 10 with every increase in the ISO rank. Another grading scale that is used is the US federal standard which is numbered 1, 10, 100, 10,000, and so on. Class 1 rooms have 1 particle for every 0.5 micrometer of cubic space, and so on, the Class numbers resembling the maximum amount of particles allowed in 0.5 cubic micrometers.

As for the filtration systems, clean rooms often use HEPA filters and ULPA filters. These filters can remove up to 99.9 percent of the particulates in the air using various air flow systems. There are laminar air flow filters which employ unidirectional airflows; this means that air flows in a straight downward motion, cleaning any particulates. There is also a non-unidirectional airflow type which creates turbulent air conditions which can separate air particles from the air. Some clean rooms employ a positive pressure to keep particles out, and then some employ negative pressure to keep contaminants in. It all depends on what needs to be done in the workspace.

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Cleanrooms & Critical Environments Main

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Cleanroom Basics

Clean rooms are used for sensitive scientific research that requires uncontaminated environments that are free from outside particles and bacteria. For example, when scientists grow cultures, it is important to isolate the task from foreign bacteria so that results will not be compromised. When it comes to manufacturing various kinds of products like microprocessors, the workspace needs to be a particle-free environment, because even a bit of dust contaminating the small chips of a microprocessor can compromise the product.

Cleanrooms come in several forms. These forms are usually divided into hard walled and soft walled. A hard wall clean room is a permanent structure or part of a larger permanent structure and generally doesn’t go anywhere. A soft wall cleanroom can be rearranged, expanded, or even transported depending on task requirements. Soft wall clean rooms are usually built within a larger, permanent structure. Soft wall cleanrooms (which are usually modular in design) are generally useful for medical emergencies or when requiring smaller scale, shorter timeframe manufacturing projects due to their flexible nature.

Cleanrooms are classified according to the amount of particles present in the air. There are two different standards used for these classifications depending on their use: the ISO classification and United States classifications specified by federal standards. ISO grades are numbers that correspond to factors of ten, starting from 1. A cleanroom graded ISO 1 contains ten or fewer particles per 0.1 micrometer cubed area; a cleanroom graded ISO 2 contains 100 or fewer particles per 0.1 micrometer cubed area; and so on. US federal standards are numbered 10, 100, 1000, etc., with each class specifying how many particles are in a 0.5 micrometer cubic area. Class 1 cleanrooms have one or fewer particles per 0.5 micrometer cubed area. Class 10 cleanrooms have 10 or fewer particles per 0.5 micrometer cubed area.

In order to limit the amount of particles they track into the cleanroom or particles they shed while working in the environment, workers are usually required to follow dress and cleanliness guidelines. Workers change into specially designed outfits, often with hood coverings, gloves, and breathing masks to keep the head covered. Workers also enter through an air shower to eliminate any lingering particles and then pass items into the cleanroom through a small antechamber that prevents outside air from entering the clean environment. Shoe scrubbers can also be used to prevent tracking in more particles.

Cleanroom Air Filtration

Clean rooms employ unique cleanroom-specific air filtration to limit the particles in the environment air. Typically, this is through the use of either a highly efficient particulate air (HEPA) or ultra low particulate air (ULPA) filter. These filters can remove roughly 99.9 percent of all micro particles in the air by applying either laminar air flow techniques or turbulent air flow techniques to the environment air.

Laminar air flow consists of air that flows in a straight path. Unidirectional air flow is maintained in clean rooms through the use of specialized laminar air flow hoods that direct air jets downward in a straight path, as well as cleanroom architecture that ensures turbulence is lessened, such as smooth surfaces and streamlined design. Laminar air flow utilizes HEPA filters to filter the air in the environment. Laminar filters are often composed of stainless steel or other non-shed materials to ensure the amount of particles that enter the facility remains low. Cleanrooms employing laminar air flow are generally known as Unidirectional Airflow Cleanrooms.

Non-unidirectional airflow clean rooms utilize turbulent airflow systems to clean air of particulates and maintain a clean environment. The entire enclosure is designed to use laminar flow and random, non-specific velocity filters to keep the air particle-free. Turbulent airflow can cause particle movement that can be difficult to separate from the rest of the air, but non-unidirectional airflow systems count on this random movement to move particles from the air through the filter.

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Air-Flow Principles

Class 10-100,000 Cleanrooms

Cleanrooms & Critical Environments Main

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Clean rooms can have different designs that feature their own advantages and disadvantages that can measured in aspects such as suitability for the task, efficiency, sustainability, functionality, and energy savings. Better designs offer coved surfaces, seamless surfaces, and smooth component transitions and are especially popular for maintaining minimal contamination.

Many are pursuing modular clean rooms as opposed to metal stud or drywall due to the system’s flexibility. Pharmaceutical product lines can be added and dropped within a moment’s notice, so workspaces must be quickly configured and reconfigured to meet the changing demands of the market. Also, due to the economy, many companies are focusing less on larger projects and relying on flexible clean rooms to handle smaller-scale projects as they come up so that companies can remain nimble and take advantage of changing market trends.

Today’s cleanrooms are primarily built for function, utilizing special HEPA filter systems and clean room monitoring equipment to maintain minimal contamination levels. Companies are also stressing protective, reusable apparel for employees in order to protect from outside contamination.

Companies prefer green, sustainable clean room designs, equipment, and apparel to remain true to their environmentally friendly image. Also cleanrooms should be energy efficient to save costs and maintenance. Companies not only want to adopt sustainable practices, but they want to cut costs and emphasize efficiency and functionality in their clean rooms so they can continue to be successful in today’s economy.

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Pharmaceutical Cleanrooms

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The first major advantage the article discusses is cost. One of the industry’s engineers mentioned around 20% in cost savings. The savings can depend on the project, but 20% is a pretty good figure, especially for something like high rises in New York. And these cost savings can be found across the board: modular construction saves on costs when it comes to any application.

Mentioned in the article, having most of the construction take place in the factory allows the company to allow for weather, control materials being used in the process and reduce waste, and lower labor costs, increasing efficiency. With these lower costs, more high rise projects become more affordable and lower cost housing can be made more available as well, a definite must considering the continuing weak state of the economy.

Many in the industry are keeping their eyes on whether modular high rise developments are successful, and if they are successful (we would bet they will be) expect many in the industry to adopt those methods. The article mentions that a college dorm that was 25-stories was built out of 805 modules in just 27 weeks, and the building is holding up well to winds, which was one of the initial engineering challenges for modular high rises.

So engineers everywhere are implementing modular designs in every facet of construction, solving unique structural challenges pertaining to each project and increasing efficiency, quality, and associated costs in doing so. Expect these trends to continue on in the next couple of years.

It seems as though the US government is showing increasing interest in the modular nuclear industry. According to an article, the United States government announced a new funding initiative for the reactors which will involve the Department of Energy sharing costs with private modular reactor manufacturers to build small modular nuclear reactors.

The smaller reactors are deemed more flexible and cost-effective to construct, due to their modular nature. Also, these new modular reactors are much more safe, utilizing passive, automatic safety controls that more effectively monitor safety conditions than the old active controls that required human interaction to function.

Improved safety conditions will especially be important to the public, considering the recent Fukushima disaster being fresh in the public’s mind.  China itself has already been investing in the smaller modular nuclear reactors to accommodate its ever-increasing industrial capacities.

With modular design making more and more construction projects more efficient and cost-effective, we may be seeing all sorts of new construction activity spring up that was previously in the form of dormant  projects. For example, not many companies could make nuclear reactors because of the astronomical costs associated with construction, as well as the long period of time before the reactors would start turning a profit. Now with a more efficient construction method, higher quality and safer reactors can be constructed.

Expect modular reactors to start popping up around the United States in the next decade.