Carestream Tollcoating, a provider of roll-to-roll precision contract coating services, announced major upgrades to its Oregon facility’s clean room operations.

The company installed new air handling and filtration systems, as well as coater and web line enclosures that isolate clean room operations from other facility traffic. The enclosures provide an environment in which the web lines are completely and exclusively bathed in clean-room air. New gowning procedures were also initiated to include full operator coverage, preventing introduction of contaminants to clean-room air.

The upgraded clean room areas reduce airborne contamination down to levels approaching a Class 100 environment in the coating and slitting operations. These improvements will keep point defects to a minimum and result in higher yields for demanding products including medical imaging film and advanced materials applications.

Carestream Tollcoating has continued its commitment to cleanliness throughout the entire production facility by hiring full-time staff solely dedicated to cleaning equipment and production spaces. This initiative allows equipment operators to focus on uninterrupted production, while the additional staff members assure optimal conditions for quality assurance.

Jerry Warren, Process Development Manager said, “These clean room updates build on Tollcoating’s world-class cleanliness standards previously established to meet the rigorous needs of Carestream’s medical imaging film applications. It is a testament to Carestream’s long-standing commitment to offer our customers the best contract manufacturing and development services for the most exacting applications.”