Hardwall cleanroom

A modular cleanroom with rigid self-supporting walls, installed inside an existing plant hall or laboratory without touching the building. It is a box within a box: it can be extended, reconfigured and, if needed, dismantled and reassembled elsewhere.

  • Structure independent of the building — self-supporting sandwich walls with airtight sealed joints: no building work, no structural constraints on the hall that houses it
  • Classes ISO 5–8 — achieved by design, sizing air changes, filtration, differential pressures and flow geometry: it is not the panel that makes the class
  • Filtration H13 or H14 — on ceiling filter units, with the filter class chosen on the requirement and not maximised out of habit
  • Extendable and dismantlable — the extra module is added while the system is running; at the end of the production cycle the room is dismantled and relocated instead of being demolished
Request a quote See the configurations
Section · box within a box Self-supporting sandwich walls
Inside the existing hall, with its trusses, stands a room that supports itself. A gap remains between the two structures: it is the sign that the building has not been touched, and the reason the room can be dismantled.
  • ISO 5–8Achievable classes
  • H13 · H14Filter classes
  • 0Building works on the structure
  • AuditAudit-ready documents, where required
They chose us

Pharmaceutical, biomedical, electronics, laboratories

Modular rooms installed inside halls and laboratories already in operation, without stopping what was going on around them.

  • L’Oréal Paris
  • Fratelli Beretta
  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • PharmaJet
  • University of Pisa
  • Fiat Aviazione
  • Solvay
  • Epson
  • Actavis
  • Kolektor
  • PAN Compositi
  • Ansaldo Energia
  • University of Milan
  • Spes Medica
How it is configured

Four decisions, and the hardwall
is already designed

The hardwall has no price list of models: it has a system that is assembled. These are the four choices that determine its cost and performance, and they are all made at the design stage.

  • 01ISO 5–8

    Class and filter coverage

    How many ceiling units and with which filter class. Below ISO 6 the coverage tends towards total above the critical zone; above ISO 7 distributed units and air changes calculated on the load are enough.

    H13 · H14 · air changes
  • 02flush or not

    Doors, windows and openings

    Hinged, sliding or automatic doors, and flush windows. Flush surfaces eliminate accumulation points and improve tightness; semi-flush ones cost less where the class allows.

    Hinged · Sliding
  • 03access

    Passages and interlocks

    Pass-boxes and trolley pass-throughs in the perimeter, interlocks on the doors, indicator lights. Every opening is a hole in the pressure cascade: it must be governed, not just opened.

    Pass-boxes · Interlocks
  • 04HVAC

    Climate and monitoring

    Differential pressure gauges, particle counters, control panels. Air conditioning comes from the host room’s system or from dedicated units installed separately: it is not included in the hardwall, and this must be said beforehand.

    Gauges · Panels
Challenges and solutions

Six things to know before
ordering a hardwall

They are the six that, when not said at the start, become a dispute at the end of the job.

  • It is a box within a box

    The hardwall rests on the existing floor and supports itself: it does not load onto the hall’s walls, it requires no building work, it needs no structural permits. That is why it can be installed in a hall in production, and why it can be dismantled without leaving a trace.

  • Sealed joints make the tightness

    A rigid sandwich panel is not enough: the class is made by the joint. Airtight joints, flush surfaces, concealed screws, junctions between wall, floor and ceiling. The tightness test is done once the system is finished, and that is where you see whether the assembly was done well.

  • Air conditioning is not included

    The hardwall controls contamination with the ceiling filter units. Temperature and humidity come from the system of the room that houses it or from dedicated HVAC units installed separately. It is the clarification that avoids the worst surprise: a room in class and at twenty-eight degrees.

  • It extends without stopping what is there

    The system is truly modular: the additional module is placed alongside, sealed and pressurised. Whoever designs a department that will double in three years should say so immediately — provisioning costs little now and a lot later.

  • Flush or semi-flush is not aesthetics

    A flush door or window frame sits in the plane of the wall: no rebates, no reveals, no unintended ledges on which dust settles. It costs more and cleans in half the time. Below ISO 7 the choice is almost compulsory.

  • Every opening is a hole in the cascade

    Doors, pass-boxes, trolley pass-throughs and service penetrations are the points where differential pressure leaks away. They must be counted at the design stage, fitted with interlocks and verified at qualification: a room with ten ungoverned openings does not hold its class even with double the air changes.

How to choose

Hardwall or softwall

They are two ways of closing the same principle. The hardwall has rigid sandwich walls, sealed joints and flush door and window frames: it holds better, insulates better, has surfaces better suited to GMP and lasts longer. It is the choice when the room is a plant.

The softwall closes with antistatic PVC strip curtains: it costs less, goes up in days, can be moved. It is the choice when the room is a piece of equipment serving a process. Asking for a hardwall where a softwall is enough is as wrong an investment as the opposite.

Talk to a technician Italy+39 02 8364 7535Spain+34 673 889 559
Same room, two perimeters Rigid on the left, strip curtains on the right
  • RigidTightness, GMP, durability
  • Strip curtainsCost, timing, mobility
  • ISO 5–8Classes achievable by both
How we work

Six steps, a single point of contact

It is the same path as for every cleanroom, from the site survey to classification: what is examined changes at every step, who answers does not.

  1. 01

    Analyse

    Process, standards and site constraints: from these come the class and the URS that sets it.

  2. 02

    Design

    Layout, separate flows, pressure cascade and HVAC, verified on BIM and CFD models.

  3. 03

    Manufacture

    Panels, steelwork and control panels in our workshop, with factory acceptance testing (FAT).

  4. 04

    Install

    On-site assembly, systems and monitoring, on-site verification (SAT) and start-up.

  5. 05

    Qualify

    We carry out the tests and deliver audit-ready documentation, where required.

  6. 06

    Support

    Scheduled maintenance, filters and calibration, including on systems from other suppliers.

Applications

Where our hardwalls end up

They are the choice when the room becomes a plant: it stays there for years, has to be qualified, has to be extended. Each card leads to the sector page.

Reference standards

The regulatory framework we apply

Classification and reclassification according to the ISO 14644family, filter classes according to EN 1822, GMP requirements where the room serves pharmaceutical production.

  • ISO 14644-1
  • ISO 14644-2
  • ISO 14644-3
  • ISO 14644-4
  • ISO 14644-5
  • EN 1822 · H13–U17
  • EU GMP Annex 1
  • VDI 2083
  • IEST-RP-CC012
  • ISO 14698-1
Frequently asked questions

Hardwall: what they ask us

The questions that come up on every site visit, with the answer we would give in person.

Is a building permit needed?

In the great majority of cases no: the hardwall is a self-supporting structure resting on the existing floor, comparable to a piece of equipment and not to a construction work. The checks remain the fire-safety and systems checks of the host room, and must be looked at case by case together with your technician.

Is air conditioning included?

No, and it is best to say so immediately. The hardwall controls contamination with the ceiling filter units; temperature and humidity come from the host room’s system or from dedicated HVAC units installed separately, which we design and supply on request as a separate item.

What is the difference from a masonry room?

The masonry room is part of the building: it lasts as long as the building, is modified with building works, cannot be moved. The hardwall is independent: it goes up in weeks instead of months, is extended by adding modules, can be dismantled and relocated. For the same class the performance is the same.

Can it be extended later?

Yes, and it is one of the reasons for choosing it. The module is placed alongside, sealed and pressurised with the existing system if it was sized for the extension. If it was not, the systems part is extended too: that is why it is worth declaring immediately how much growth is expected.

How long does it take to build?

A modular clean room in ISO 7–8 takes 10–14 weeks from design to qualification. An ISO 5 cleanroom takes 16–24, because filter coverage, tests and documentation change.

Is qualification included?

Yes: particle classification, in-situ filter integrity tests, tightness, recovery test and flow visualisation according to ISO 14644-3. The dossier comes out ready for the audit, not to be assembled.

Let’s talk

Send us the floor plan of the hall,
we’ll take care of the rest

Usable height, column positions, floor load capacity, available utilities and the class needed in each zone. With these elements the quote is precise from the first pass, built on your process.

Request a quote See the cleanrooms