Since the earliest recorded times, as humans we have sought ways to change our perception of reality. From our distant ancestors’ use of psychoactive plants and opium during the Stone Age (accounts of which later surfaced in the Neolithic era) to the use of alcohol in the eastern Mediterranean and in Mesopotamia during the 4th [Read More…]
Last week, in tracing the rise of the robot in the cleanroom, we looked back in time to the roots of automation in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century’s ‘Second Industrial Revolution.’ And it got us thinking. What could be the future of robots in the cleanroom? In controlled environments? In our everyday lives? Could they [Read More…]
Our technological environment is a rapidly developing, always diversifying arena in which the only constants are growth and change. And this is nothing new. Although we consider our technological advances as being relatively recent – viz the growth of Silicon Valley and our entry into the Information Age – American history is replete with examples [Read More…]
In the contamination-control industry, we all understand the importance of and difference in ISO classes. These global standards were devised and adopted when the U.S. General Service Administrations standards – then known as FS209E – were no longer adequate in categorizing the growing specifications in cleanroom technology. From the original six classes of the FS209E, [Read More…]
Lynn Stanard, Senior Quality Manager, was a recipient of the 2016 Exceptional Woman Contributor Award by Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology. The award citation reads: To Lynn Stanard, for her 25 years of active participation and leadership in IEST Working Groups. Her expert knowledge of cleanroom consumables has been fundamental to the development of [Read More…]
As with much of life, perfecting the implementation of a technique is a matter of trial and error. From the correct perspective, and, in finding a solution to a problem, the error is prevented from recurring. In this light, mistakes are simply opportunities disguised as problems and they allow for continual improvement. And in one [Read More…]
Way back in the murky distant mists of time, a trip to your primary care physician might include him listening to your heart, giving you a quick tap on knees to test reflexes, a guffaw about your three martini lunch, and a lungful of second hand smoke from the cigarette burning down in a glass [Read More…]
In a science-fictional universe way ahead of us in the future, there is no industrial complex as we know it today. No sprawling manufacturing campuses or security-patrolled warehouses crammed with shelved inventory. Everything we use on a day-to-day basis is created on demand, at the very moment it is required. All of our homes are [Read More…]
When it comes to cleanroom and controlled-environment news, the stories we read in the press can often be dramatic. Last week, we reviewed a dire situation with ebola where sub-standard gowns, gloves, and glove liners were jeopardizing the lives of medical personnel by allowing bodily fluids to permeate through to the wearer’s skin in a [Read More…]
Although the FDA sometimes has a reputation as a stickler, it’s clear that the Food and Drug Administration often demonstrates a lot of patience, too—except when a company refuses to update their operating procedures to make required fixes to bring their standard operating procedures. Listen: we get it. No one likes to hear phrases like [Read More…]
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