Technical Articles

Reap the benefits of regular workplace cleaning and disinfection: Regular cleaning and disinfection creates a professional working environment, boosts morale, reduces staff illness and minimises equipment downtime.

BACS Top Tips For Tacky Mats: Check out BACS top tips for tacky mat, based on over 40 years of experience with tacky mats.

Contamination Control with Above-Floor Cleaning: Because data centres and server rooms are far more sensitive to contamination than any other business environment, facility managers must protect their mission-critical IT equipment from damage and downtime by creating a contamination prevention & control plan and implementing a regular cleaning schedule.

Mould Treatment in Data Centres: Naturally occurring and practically everywhere, mould spreads via spores. These tiny particles are light enough to disperse widely before settling on surfaces. If a spore lands where it finds a reliable source of moisture and nutrients at the right temperature, a new colony will grow.

Air Particle Testing and Reporting: Progressive data centre operators have recognised the value of measuring their air cleanliness against an international benchmark.

Zinc Whisker Remediation in Data Centre: Zinc whiskers are tiny hairs which grow on zinc-plated surfaces such as floor tile undersides, pedestals and stringers, as well as sub-floor and overhead cable trays and metal brackets

Looks Matter Scrub-Washing Floors: Data centre looks matter! Scrub-washing removes discolouration, scuff marks and dirt residue build ups on floors.

Protect Your Staff At Work: Keeping work areas clean and hygienic reduces illness, enhances productivity and encourages everyone to maintain a tidy workplace.

Disinfection Strategies for Workplaces: Which office areas harbour the greatest number of germs? And what are the most effective ways to clean and sanitise these locations?

Data Centre Zinc Whisker Risk and Remediation: Zinc whiskers are tiny hairs of zinc which form on electroplated metal surfaces. They can grow to several millimetres in length and a few microns in diameter. The exact reason why they develop on some metal surfaces and not on others is unclear. Potential causes have been linked to surface stress from the electroplating process or from mechanical and thermal effects.

BACS Top Tips When Using an Air Scrubber: A portable air scrubber is an air circulator which draws the atmosphere of a room through a series of filters to reduce levels of particles and gases before releasing purified air out of the other side.

New International Data Centre Cleanliness Standard: New international data centre cleanliness standard ISO 14644-1; how to achieve and maintain it for your facility.

Proper Swab Sampling Procedure: View this step by step swab sampling procedure. Also on this page a swab selection guide.

Data Centre Risk Management Series Part 3: Pest Control: Incorporate and implement a pest management plan into your data centre maintenance schedule.

Cleanroom Risk Management Series Part 2: Cosmetics increase particulates and bioburden: Creams, lotions and cosmetics worn by people who work in a cleanroom can pose significant threats to cleanliness levels. Pharmaceutical production is much more affected by microbiological impurities.

Data Centre Risk Management Series Part 2: Security Clearances: Check and ensure your data centre maintenance team is cleared with the relevant security level.

Cleanroom Risk Management Series Part 1: Post-Construction Cleaning Scope of Works: One major cause of complications during the handover of a newly constructed cleanroom is not having a clear post-construction cleaning scope of works (SOW). Builders are responsible for delivering the facility cleaned ready to meet a certain standard.

Data Centre Risk Management Series Part 1: Floods: The number 1 cause of emergency callouts for data centres that BACS encounters is water entering sub-floors.

Laminar-flow cleanroom inventor honored posthumously by National Inventors Hall of Fame: When Whitfield announced the invention in 1962, researchers and industrialists didn't believe it, but within a few short years, $50 billion worth of laminar-flow cleanrooms were built worldwide and Whitfield had been dubbed "Mr. Clean" by TIME Magazine.

What to look for in a data centre: At its most basic, a data centre provides four services: a secure space to house your gear, power for your gear, cooling to remove excess heat and connectivity to the rest of the world. Beyond those basics there are many variables. We talk to industry experts to get the lowdown.

Could your post-construction cleaning be done better by BACS?: Turning a building site into a controlled IT, cleanroom or laboratory environment requires a comprehensive and professional post-construction clean. Elimination of dust from walls, residue on all surfaces and other coarse debris is essential for properly preparing a new room for equipment installation.

Data Centre Cleaning Terminology: Forensic clean, as well as clinical, white glove, hygienic and critical clean are terms being increasingly used in relation to data centres. But what do these phrases actually mean in this context? They all translate into a thorough and detailed clean of critical data areas using proven techniques with measureable and documented effectiveness.

How to clean your laptop/tablet screen: The curse of the greasy, fingerprint covered screen is something many computer users are becoming aware of as more and more devices are touch enabled.

3 Benefits of Outsourcing Your Cleanroom Cleaning: Outsourcing your cleanroom cleaning to a technical cleaning company has many benefits. Read about it.

Why the Swab Matters in Cleaning Validation: Swabbing is the preferred method of sampling pharmaceutical manufacturing surfaces during cleaning validation. Sampling and analysis methods have a direct impact on the percent recovery results from either HPLC or TOC assays. Ensure that swabs, filters, and associated materials used are of the highest quality and do not contribute even trace levels of impurities that can interfere with the results.

Consistency as the True Measure of Cleanroom Wiper Quality: This study reviews the test methods used to evaluate cleanroom wipers, presents a new and improved approach for cleanliness evaluation, and demonstrates the value of using consistency of test results rather than a singular result as the true measure of wiper quality.

Willis Whitfield: Willis Whitfield, who has died aged 92, was a physicist who discovered how to remove microscopic particles of dust from an enclosed environment, developing the “clean room” technology that is now used in nearly every computer chip plant, pharmaceutical manufacturer and hospital operating theatre in the world.

Texwipe pays homage to founder Edward Paley (1924 – 2012): Texwipe founder and pioneer in the field of contamination control, Edward Paley, passed away.

10 Step Plan to Meeting ISO 14644-1 Particle Standards in a Data Centre: 10 Step Plan to Meeting ISO 14644-1 Particle Standards in a Data Centre - request your copy!

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