The Measures We Take to Meet GMP in Our Cleanroom Equipment Design

– Cutting Corners and Taking Shortcuts Are not in Our Dictionary

During our time as manufacturers of material handling equipment for the pharmaceutical and food / beverage industry, we have heard stories of products that didn’t live up to industry regulations which resulted in unfortunate product contamination.

When building stainless steel lifters for cleanroom use, product contamination is not the only thing to be aware of. When electricity and moving parts are involved, the safety of the personnel also becomes a large concern.

We know that our customers will go a very long way to ensure that their cleanroom equipment, such as their stainless steel lifting equipment, is safe, reliable and of high quality.

We at 2Lift will go to great length to mirror their ambitions in our material handling lift solutions.

The Backbone Specs on Our Pharma Clean Room Material Handling Equipment
– Grades of Stainless Steel, Levels of Ingress (IP) and Surface Roughness (RA)

As already mentioned, we cut no corners when it comes to our lifters, neither in design nor material and components. Thus we strictly adhere to industry standards when it comes to grades of stainless steel, levels of ingress protection and surface roughness.

Determining Which Grade of Stainless Steel You Need

Stainless steel is not just stainless steel. As you may already be aware of, there are different types of stainless steel alloys ideal for different purposes and environments.

What we can offer are two types of austenitic stainless steel, AISI 304 and AISI 316L.

Both types of steel are highly corrosion resistant, non-magnetic, heat resistant, hygienic, durable and ideal building material for lifting equipment in the pharmaceutical, food / beverage, chemical, brewery, and dairy industry.

Whether you need a lifter in AISI 304 or AISI 316L depends mainly on the level of corrosive agents present in your environment.

AISI 304

This steel alloy contains about 18% chromium and 10% nickel and offers a very high corrosion protection. AISI 304 is what we use in our standard cleanroom handling lifters and is typically found suitable for the food / beverage industry and sometimes also for the pharmaceutical industry.

AISI 316L

In environments where the risk of corrosion is higher, we recommend using AISI 316L which consists of app. 17% chromium, 12% nickel and 2,2% molybdenum. The addition of molybdenum increases durability and corrosion resistance.

AISI 316L is the recommended choice for environments with high chloride or sulphuric acid exposure. It is also a good choice for offshore / coast-near industry as the acids found in salt water also increases the risk of tarnishing and rust.

High Ingress Protection (Waterproof)

IP (International Protection Rating, also known as Ingress Protection Rating) determines the degree of protection against intrusion of solid and liquid matter such as dust and water. In layman terms the IP is more commonly referred to as water resistant or waterproof.

An ingress protection of IP65 is standard for our pharmaceutical SP-lifters which means that it is dust tight and can resist flowing water – thus allowing for easy cleaning with a hose.

Low Surface Roughness (Ra)

Our cleanroom equipment also has a very low general surface roughness of less than 1.6 Ra and in the case of product contact, we can ensure a Ra of only 0.8.