Purity technology production is driving important innovations across all industries: the manufacture of microchips, flat screens, implants, active pharmaceutical ingredients or micro and nano products would be unthinkable without a clean, pure or ultra-pure production environment. Outstanding ideas in purity technology not only make completely new products possible, but also make production processes more economical. In order to recognize these and highlight cleanliness technology production as a key technology, the Fraunhofer IPA awards the Fraunhofer Cleanliness Technology Prize every two years.

This year, the winners of the Fraunhofer Cleanliness Technology Award are Igus, Pflitsch and Zeiss. Only the ranking is still open: Will the first hygienic design cable gland made of plastic from Pflitsch or the abrasion-resistant cable routing system made of high-performance plastic from Igus win the race? Or will the solution for the light microscopic analysis of technical cleanliness from Zeiss win?

• To ensure that electronics function reliably in everyday life, production systems must not contaminate sensitive circuits with abrasion. Even a small particle that falls off the cable guide of a robot, for example, can destroy the circuit of a smartphone during production. The 'e-skin flat' cleanroom cable carrier system from Igus makes a contribution to safety in electronics production. The cleanroom-compatible, compact and modularly expandable cable routing system made of high-performance plastic shows virtually no visible wear and is abrasion-resistant. Tests carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA have shown that the system achieves class 1 according to ISO 1414: The system achieves class 1 according to ISO 14644 and therefore meets the strictest cleanroom requirements. The cable routing causes only minimal particle emissions, even during fast movements.
• With the 'blueglobe Clean Plus' cable gland,Pflitsch has developed the first hygienic design cable gland made of plastic that is certified in accordance with EHEDG. It therefore meets the strict requirements of the food and pharmaceutical industries in terms of hygienic suitability and cleaning. Smooth surfaces, no open threads and other advantages ensure that the adhesion of dirt particles, which can promote the formation of bacterial nests, is ruled out. The cable gland has passed extensive Ecolab tests with common cleaning agents, achieves protection classes IP66, IP68 (up to 15 bar) and IP69 and is approved for the temperature range from -20 to +110 °C. It also impresses in terms of hygiene properties with the same good values and sizes as its stainless steel counterpart, but is significantly cheaper due to the material.
• Carl Zeiss IQS Germany has presented a solution for the light microscopic analysis of technical cleanliness. The one-scan technology makes it possible to capture both shiny metallic and non-metallic shiny particles in a single pass. The solution is based on a new camera from the 'Axiocam' family, which is equipped with an on-chip polarization filter mask with different transmission directions. This makes it possible to capture polarized and bright images in one step. This also guarantees a pixel-precise overlay of polarized and bright image - there is no so-called pixel shift - and the brightness compensation, the so-called shading correction, is significantly simplified. However, the most important effect is the significantly faster image acquisition, as the complete sample area is only recorded and examined once. This corresponds to a halving of the time required for imaging. Overall, this results in a significant gain in time and efficiency for the overall evaluation.