[BNC-all] Update on Cleanroom Fume Hoods

[Reger, Ronald K]

Dear Cleanroom Users,

Update as of 4/17, 4:30 pm

There have been a series of tests and meetings today regarding the deficiencies of our new cleanroom fume hoods.  We shut them down yesterday due to unsafe conditions regarding leaking work surfaces and exhaust flow, and they remain down today.  Design flaws have been documented and the fume hood vendor, Lab Crafters, has been notified.  They are sending representatives in on Monday and we have a critical meeting with them Monday afternoon at 1:00 to discuss remediation for all the issues.  Until the hoods are upgraded to a safe working condition they will remain unavailable.

Immediate access to fume hoods:  There are two solvent and two acid hoods available for use now in H-Bay.  These are the previous style hoods and are up, safe, and available for use.  Please share space in these hoods since the working space is limited.

Potential short-term interim options:
1)  Pepper construction is exploring an option to temporarily keep the hood decks from leaking.  It is not a proven method but will be tested and either confirmed or failed.  This might apply to a very small number of the new hoods and we will notify users when and if this happens over the next few days.
2)  Construction progress in D-Bay next week will expose a few new hoods to the cleanroom.  These will be tested and could potentially be used on an interim basis sometime next week.  We will notify the community if and when these become available.

Long-term permanent fixes:  Lab Crafters will be required to fix all the issues and after their visit they will develop remediation plans for each hood.  The timing of this is uncertain until fixes can be identified, installed, & tested.

We apologize for this inconvenience but the safety of our users is the top priority and we can't allow any potential unsafe fume hoods to be used under the current conditions.

Thanks for your understanding.

Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </ECN/mailman/archives/bnc-all/attachments/20250417/4b9521db/attachment.htm>