Daw Technologies Inc. to Provide Cleanroom Air Delivery System

Daw Technologies Inc. (Salt Lake City, UT) has been awarded a contract to provide the cleanroom air delivery system for the expansion of a North American facility of a major multi-national semiconductor manufacturer. The contract represents approximately $3.2 million in new business. Daw will be provide both Stratus re-circulating airhandling units and "fan tower" airhandling units. Fan towers use direct drive fans (in this installation) or vane axial fans (typically) located in the sub-fab of the manufacturing building.

As Rod Butler, director of Daw's airhandling initiative, explained, fan towers are large, high capacity systems, typically delivering in the neighborhood of 70,000 cfm of air. The towers that ventilate the cleanroom consume floor space and must be built at the same time as the building shell, so fan towers are less flexible than other approaches. Fan towers are most cost effective for cleanrooms in the 50,000-100,000 sq. ft. range, Butler said. In large installations, the tower's simplified piping and electrical wiring make up for the larger unit cost.

Most fan tower installations use vane axial fans, which are more efficient but noisier than direct drive fans. The additional noise attenuation required by vane axial fans decreases their delivered air pressure. These fans must therefore generate more pressure than direct drive fans in order to produce a given air flow.

David R. Grow, chief operating officer and executive vice president, stated, "We are very pleased with this award. We are currently seeing a significant increase in bidding activity on air delivery systems."

By Katherine Derbyshire

For more information: Daw Technologies, Inc., Clean Room Division, 2700 South 900, West Salt Lake City, UT 84119-2418. Tel: 801-977-3100; Fax: 801-973-6640.