A blown film line can stand more than ten metres tall across several levels, and a single machine takes up a large part of the workshop. Enclosing it completely in a clean space without disrupting its operation or compromising structural safety is the first challenge in any cleanroom retrofit for food packaging film.
Four challenges in blown film workshops
- Very large equipment: The multi-level blown film tower must be fully enclosed while the machine keeps running normally and the building structure stays safe.
- Sensitivity to dust, temperature and humidity: If cleanliness falls short or temperature and humidity fluctuate, film surfaces develop defects and more gels, and optical properties and lamination strength suffer.
- High energy use: Keeping a large space at stable temperature and humidity makes the cleanroom HVAC a major energy consumer. A system that is not designed for efficiency eats into profit year after year.
- Construction and compliance: The work involves steel structures at height, so poor design or construction creates safety hazards. Materials and processes that do not meet food-contact material requirements put product safety and audits at risk.
Most of these problems are created at the very beginning of a project.
Why conventional approaches often fail
With a conventional cleanroom build, it is hard to fully enclose large multi-level equipment without affecting its operation or structural safety. Problems also arise at the design stage:
- The site survey is incomplete, drawings are based on documents only, and they do not match the site;
- Detail drawings are copied from a library without being fully updated, so the data is inconsistent;
- Upstream equipment such as air handling units and control logic is not coordinated with the manufacturers in advance, and mismatched operating logic i