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The seminar, held in conjunction with Semicon (Europa) on April 17th 2002, was attended by over 60 delegates and covered a wide range of issues relating to fire protection & fire risk reduction in cleanrooms. The seminar, chaired by Alain Pardon, who is the EHS Manager at IMEC & also SSA(Europe) Vice Chair, had speakers from both the US & Europe. Bob Barnes (Robert B Barnes Associates Inc.) gave an overview of Incidents & Accidents in Semiconductor Cleanrooms. Bob provided information about fire and liquid leakage incidents that have affected the industry before going on to explain how an effective programme can be put in place to help wafer fabs and cleanrooms learn from these serious events. Al Brown (Rushbrook Consultants) presented a paper concerning Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment – Standards for Fire Risk Assessment & Reduction. Al covered issues associated with fires from chemical baths & went into detail about the SEMI S14 Guideline that explains how to conduct a fire risk assessment on semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Finally, Al gave a brief overview of the ATEX Directive & how this may affect future cleanroom equipment. Klaus Ritz (Ausimont, Deutschland, GmbH) gave an insight into Fire Fluoropolymer Solutions for Equipment Construction Materials & Fume Exhaust Ductwork. His paper covered the types of materials that had been approved to the FM 4910 Standard for wet chemical process equipment, along with an overview of corrosion & fire resistant coating for the inside of exhaust ducts. Dave Tanaka (FM Approvals) gave an in depth presentation how Factory Mutual go about their testing of new materials for approval to the FM 4910 Standard. Dave also covered the test protocol for the FM 4922 Standard that is applied to exhaust ducts. A combined paper by Doug Williams (ATS Inc) & Bill Radford (Fab Tech Inc.) gave a further detailed explanation of Firesafe Corrosive Fume Exhaust Systems. The presentation went into actual results of the tests done for FM 4922 approval & covered technical aspects of both Fire Retardant Plastic (FRP) & fluoropolymer coated stainless steel duct materials. In the final paper of the afternoon, Heron Peterkin (FM Global), reminded us yet again of the Combustible Materials in Semiconductor Fabs so that everyone was aware of the hazards that these materials pose. Heron shared loss histories that both FM & IRI had produced of accidents associated with fire, chemical spills, power outs etc.. that the industry had suffered over the past 12 years. The final panel discussion, participated by all of the speakers under the control of the Chair, Alain Pardon, wrapped up the afternoons events. SSA(Europe) would like to thank FM Global, for sponsoring the event, along with the UK Fire Prevention Association for publishing the proceedings in it’s April Fire Prevention & Fire Engineers Journal.
Left to right: Al Brown, Alain Pardon (right) fields questions from audience, Bill Radford
Left to right: Bob Barnes, Seminar delegates, Dave Tanaka
Left to right: Heron Peterkin, Panel discussion, Klaus Ritz
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Past Seminars
