[BNC-all] UltraPure Water Issue

[Reger, Ronald K]

Dear Birck Users,

On Tuesday evening at about 9:00 pm the UltraPure Water system went offline.  All pumps shut down and UPW supply was halted.  This affects many areas of Birck......UPW to fume hoods, hydrogen generator, burn boxes, dicing saws, and very importantly, the humidification of the cleanroom.  Looking at the issue on Tuesday night Tim Miller discovered the control computer was down and all control outputs were off.  Attempts to restart the system were unsuccessful late into the night.  Because of UPW being used in so many systems we have closed the cleanroom until this problem is resolved and systems are stabilized.  The cleanroom humidity is running at about 15% without humidification, and this can cause static discharge on devices and individuals.  Additionally no acid or solvent work is possible without having UPW, and our burn boxes are down without UPW.  Also we have closed all acid hoods in the labs, and dicing saws should not be used.

Tim contacted a knowledgeable field engineer this morning and with his guidance we were able to restart the UPW control computer.  We don't know why the control computer went offline, but with it running now we're in the process of cycling the water softeners, bringing up UPW pressure, cycling the filters, and eventually getting the humidifiers running and stabilized.  If the control computer continues to run this UPW stabilization process will take several hours, and with no more computer issues we anticipate the cleanroom may be able to be reopened sometime tomorrow.

We were very fortunate to get the system back up and hopefully it stays up with no additional failures.  Thanks for your support and patience during this time.

Birck Management
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