CAPE ®, to temporarily create a cleanroom environment in clean rooms

At OHB System AG, the mobile cleanroom CAPE® is set up in a cleanroom of ISO Class 5 to temporarily protect sensitive hardware from particulate and molecular contamination. (c) OHB System AG

OHB uses the mobile and self-sufficient system CAPE ® to temporarily create its own cleanroom environment in cleanrooms. This allows sensitive products, for example during maintenance or new installations, to be protected from particulate and molecular contamination. Similarly, critical processes can be relocated into the mobile and quickly installable cleanroom to protect existing infrastructure. CAPE ® was developed through a collaboration between OHB and Fraunhofer IPA.

The OHB System AG, a subsidiary of the publicly traded space and technology company OHB SE, has designed a mobile cleanroom together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation IPA, which will be presented at the current trade fair for cleanroom and pharmaceutical process technology, LOUNGES 2018.

“How can I protect sensitive hardware in a high-purity cleanroom when it is being maintained or modified?” wondered Dr. Axel Müller, Cleanliness Officer at OHB System AG, and considered various work situations in the cleanroom and possible solutions. Then he had the idea of creating its own cleanroom environment inside the cleanroom using a mobile and quickly installable, autonomous system. He presented his ideas to the OHB partner Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart and encountered open doors. The experts at IPA recognized the potential and joined the development. They further developed their prototype together with OHB. The result is the Mobile Cleanroom CAPE ® (Clean And Protective Environment), which allows users to house hardware on an area of about four by four meters in well under an hour. In addition to the aerospace industry, OHB and IPA also see potential demand for mobile and autonomous cleanrooms in the pharmaceutical, optics, food, medical, and semiconductor industries.

CAPE ® provides “double” protection: hardware and infrastructure

The mobile cleanroom CAPE ® offers temporary protection for all kinds of hardware not only during product inspections or cleaning processes but also during new installations in the cleanroom, routine maintenance, and repairs, providing reliable protection against particulate and molecular contamination. It can also be used during acceptance tests with suppliers or in test houses where space hardware must qualify for spaceflight.
CAPE ® also protects existing infrastructure. In this case, critical processes such as bonding are carried out in the mobile cleanroom to ensure the status of the rest of the cleanroom.

Tested and approved

At the OHB Space Center “Optics and Science” in Oberpfaffenhofen, CAPE ® was used for the first time in late 2017 in one of the ISO5 cleanrooms. “The system not only convinced us completely but also showed us additional possibilities for application and expansion,” says Dr. Müller. “CAPE ® was implemented by IPA with extreme professionalism. Standardized processes after each use ensure the cleanliness and operational readiness of CAPE ®, even over storage periods. Therefore, we will keep five systems at OHB to be optimally equipped for all cases.”

CAPE ® is not just “off the shelf”

CAPE ® can be purchased both as a standard product and as a customized model. When designing and manufacturing custom models, the intended use, desired size, and required air cleanliness class are taken into account.