The Effect of Air Permeability and Water Vapor Permeability of Cleanroom Clothing on Physiological Responses and Wear Comfort

Abstract

The function of cleanroom clothing is to protect the product from contamination by people, and to dissipate electrostatic discharge. People in the cleanroom work environment often complain about the discomforts associated with the wearing of cleanroom clothing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of air permeability and water vapor permeability of cleanroom clothing on the subject's physiological and subjective responses. Five male and five female subjects participated in this study. The experimental goal was to simulate the operator's regular tasks in a semiconductor manufacturing cleanroom. Each subject completed three treatment combinations with three different cleanroom clothing types. A three-factor experiment was designed (significance level p = 0.05). The independent variables included gender, cleanroom clothing, and duration. The dependent measures included heart rate, core temperature, skin temperature, micro-climate relative humidity, micro-climate temperature, and subjective responses. A total of 40 min was involved for each treatment condition. The results indicate that skin temperature, micro-climate temperature and micro-climate relative humidity were lower while wearing cleanroom clothing with high air permeability and high water vapor permeability. The significant gender difference was found in skin temperature. As the task time increased, the micro-climate temperature also increased but the micro-climate relative humidity decreased at first and then increased. In addition, the physiological responses showed significant positive correlations with the subjective perception of clothing comfort. The findings of this study may provide useful information for cleanroom clothing design and selection.

Holes in wrist patches improve wearing comfort

“…A vast amount of literature is available on the effect of ventilation features and air permeability of fabrics on thermal comfort. In general, both have a positive impact on thermal comfort (Chan et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2014;Ho et al, 2011;Sun et al, 2015). Subjective comfort scores seems to correspond well with physiological measurements as skin temperature (Chen et al, 2014).…”

“…In general, both have a positive impact on thermal comfort (Chan et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2014;Ho et al, 2011;Sun et al, 2015). Subjective comfort scores seems to correspond well with physiological measurements as skin temperature (Chen et al, 2014). Even though clothing covers larger areas of the body, it is expected that the same principle holds true for wrist patches.…”

Certain personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting from Timisoara, Romania: a case study

“…No relations were found between perceived thermal sensation and clothing, BMI and indoor air temperature, during both seasons in the conducted study. In research literature the permeability of clothing decreased local microclimate temperature and relative humidity [ 24 ], or indirect relation body fat—exposure to microclimate factors and thermal discomfort resulted [ 25 , 26 ].…”

Gender Influences Bacterial Contamination of Reusable Cleanroom Operators’ Garments following Wear

“…Operators are well established as the predominant source of cleanroom contamination [1][2][3][4][5] . This contamination is derived primarily from human skin squames, a result of continuous skin shedding 5,6 , a tenth of which typically host a small number of bacteria 7 .…”