How to launder and reprocess cleanroom garments correctly

Why must cleanroom garments be reprocessed under control?

Cleanroom garments keep the particles and microbes shed by people away from the critical environment. To do that, they must be reprocessed in a qualified cleanroom laundry, not an ordinary dry cleaner. Domestic washing machines or standard laundries contaminate the fabric with foreign particles and destroy the filtering weave structure.

Reprocessing follows a validated sequence: washing with low-particle water, a final rinse with deionised water, controlled drying inside the cleanroom, visual inspection, sterilisation where required, and particle-free packaging. Every step runs under defined, documented conditions.

How are cleanroom garments washed and sterilised?

Garments are washed with low-surfactant, particle-free detergents in water of defined purity. For sterile applications (pharma, aseptic grades A/B under EU-GMP) a sterilisation step follows, usually steam in an autoclave at 121 to 134 °C or gamma irradiation.

• Sterile and non-sterile items kept separate throughout the process.
• Drying and folding inside the cleanroom, not in ambient air.
• Handle conductive carbon threads gently, no aggressive bleaches.

How many reprocessing cycles do cleanroom garments survive?

Each garment tolerates only a limited number of wash and sterilisation cycles. Typical values are 50 to 75 cycles, often more for wash-only (non-sterilised) items and clearly fewer with frequent steam sterilisation. The limit is set by the manufacturer combined with testing at the laundry.

The cycle count is tracked with a durable barcode or RFID chip sewn into the garment, incremented at every reprocessing run. When a suit reaches its set limit or fails an inspection, it is retired and replaced.

• Helmke drum test: a rotating drum simulates movement while a particle counter records emission.
• Visual inspection for tears, open seams, defective zips and cuffs.
• Documentation of every cycle with batch and item traceability.
• Retire and replace as soon as the limit or cycle count is exceeded.

How do you recognise a qualified laundry provider?

Reprocessing is an outsourced GMP-relevant process. The provider must be qualified and audited regularly. The basis is a validated wash process, a certified cleanroom of the required class (ISO 14644‑1) and full traceability of every garment.

Frequently asked questions