Shoe Inn Machinations

Automatic Shoe Cover Dispensers and Removers: Models Comparison

Disposable shoe cover dispensers and removers increase efficiency and productivity, promote safety, and improve compliance and cleanliness. Shoe Inn’s automatic shoe cover dispensers and removers can be simply and easily incorporated into virtually any workplace routine.

Shoe Inn Shoe Cover Dispensers

Shoe Inn’s line of automatic shoe cover dispensers offers a game changing way to increase efficiency/productivity and cut down on workplace injuries. Using a Shoe Inn automatic shoe cover dispenser is at least FOUR TIMES FASTER than putting shoe covers on manually. This significantly shorter gowning time equals increased efficiency that translates to increased productivity, meaning you are not wasting money paying your employees to put on shoe covers but instead are paying them in their work environment where they are being productive. Cumulatively, these small time saving increments add up to big savings for your business! On the safety side, eliminate issues with people potentially falling down while hopping around on one foot – what we call the “bootie hop,” which is a worker’s comp claim waiting to happen – or losing their balance while leaning against a wall to apply shoe covers. It is also worth noting that using automatic shoe cover dispensers increases health and sanitation compliance by facilitating hands-free, contamination-free shoe cover application.

Shoe Inn Stay

The Shoe Inn Stay is designed for medium to high volume usage areas where safety compliance is critical thanks to its built in handlebar. People can easily apply a pair of shoe covers in 5-10 seconds. One Shoe Inn Stay can cover up to 110 pairs of shoes at a time and requires no electricity, so it can be easily deployed at any suitable location.

Shoe Inn Fusion

The Shoe Inn Fusion is perfect for low to medium volume usage. Though it is almost the same footprint on the ground as the Shoe Inn Stay, the Fusion works in some tighter areas since it doesn’t have the vertical component and is also easier to transport. Users can easily apply a pair of shoe covers in 5-10 seconds. One Shoe Inn Fusion can cover up to 55 pairs of shoes at a time and requires no electricity, so it can be easily deployed at any suitable location.

Shoe Inn Shoe Cover Removers

Use of hands-free automatic shoe cover removers is the final piece to any health and safety routine in the workplace. Designed to prevent cross contamination, Shoe Inn offers two shoe cover remover options for safe, efficient, and sanitary removal of disposable shoe covers.

ASCR-33

Designed for medium to high volume applications, the ASCR-33 features a 33-gallon storage canister that holds 600-plus used shoe covers (depending on the type of shoe cover).

ASCR-10

Intended for low to medium volume uses, the ASCR-10 comes with a 10-gallon canister that holds 100 or more used shoe covers (depending on the type of bootie).

Automatically Apply and Remove Shoe Covers

If your business hasn’t started using automatic shoe cover dispensers and removers, it isn’t running as efficiently, cleanly, and safely as possible. Please contact Shoe Inn so we can help you to find a specific solution to fit your company’s particular needs. Contact us for a quote or demo and to learn more about how Shoe Inn’s automatic shoe cover system can benefit your business.

Shoe Covers in Specific Industries: Food

Cleanliness is vital in the food manufacturing/processing industry (growers, processing plants, etc.) in order to prevent contamination and avoid negative food safety headlines. Along with thorough hygiene practices and sanitation, wearing personal protective equipment such as gloves, beard covers, hairnets, and shoe covers can make a significant difference in reducing food contamination. Here are a few reasons why Shoe Inn shoe covers are crucial in preventing food contamination and the overall food industry:

Decreasing Outside Contamination

Tracking outside contaminants into clean environments on the bottoms of shoes is a potential health hazard in the food industry. New shoe covers are clean and will keep any outside contaminants contained inside the covers, thereby preventing them from being introduced into food products.

Just as it is important to not introduce outside contaminants into the sanitary environment where food is processed/handled, it’s equally important to ensure nothing from the shoe covers gets left behind. Fortunately, the clips on Shoe Inn shoe covers have been designed so that they remain in place during application, wear, and removal.

Increasing Safety

Spills happen in the food industry and can be a significant safety hazard in terms of slips and falls. Some shoe covers are liquid proof and include non-skid/anti-slip coatings, helping to decrease slipping incidents and thereby promote safety.

Bottom line, shoe covers are an important piece of an overall food safety program and can also improve workplace safety in the food industry.

Three “Off the Beaten Path” Applications Where Shoe Covers are Used

The elevator conversation goes something like this: “We sell automatic shoe cover dispensers and shoe covers.” “Shoe covers?” “Yes, shoe covers or booties, like doctors wear.” “Oh yeah, hospital booties.” Other than hospitals, the usual suspects where shoe covers are used include pharmaceutical manufacturing, food processing, research and development, medical device manufacturing, etc. Less obvious applications include construction, real estate, and aerospace as well. Because most of us are not behind the scenes, we don’t realize there are dozens and dozens of industries where shoe booties are important. Here are three “off the beaten path” applications where disposable shoe covers are used:

“Dirty business”

Most often shoe booties are used in clean environments (for example, cleanrooms, laboratories, food processing facilities) where the intent is to keep outside contaminants from entering for reasons such as hygiene, food safety, product purity, testing results integrity, etc. Why would “dirty” industries (like your stereotypical manufacturing that is oily/greasy/otherwise messy) use them? The reason is that when employees or anyone else who has been in the dirty area comes into the clean office space for lunch, a quick meeting, or to exit the facility, they put on shoe covers in order to keep the area clean and to prolong the life of expensive flooring. A thick fabric bootie may do the trick, but a heavy duty shoe cover that will stand up to aggressive boot treads and keep dirty contaminants inside the shoe cover may be advisable.

Filming and photography

Location sets for filming and photography may involve exclusive homes and fragile surfaces that deserve protection from scuffs, scratches, and contamination. Also, companies may want to protect their green screens when people are walking or posing on them. Depending on the surface, a plastic shoe cover may be appropriate because it is waterproof and inexpensive. Another option that is also waterproof but has superior traction is the Super non-slip shoe cover, which is the go-to when slippery surfaces are involved.

Textile services

Clean laundry doesn’t deserve to get dirty before it is put into use. No need to waste water and detergent for re-washing, right? Keeping large-scale laundry facilities clean is important in case the corner of a clean sheet or towel touches the ground, or a laundered uniform accidentally falls on the floor. A variety of types of shoe covers would work, perhaps a low cost fabric bootie.

Disposable shoe covers are ubiquitous and quite helpful in a wide variety of environments beyond the usual suspect applications. From military bases to national laboratories, child care facilities to parades of homes, energy production operations to battery manufacturers, shoe covers are a vital tool to keep environments clean and safe.

Seven Reasons to Utilize Revolutionary Automatic Shoe Cover Dispensers and Removers

There are multiple methods for businesses and organizations to keep their facilities clean and minimize or prevent contamination from the wide variety of contaminants that exist on shoes. The four most prevalent options are shoe covers/booties (disposable or reusable), dedicated/facility shoes, sticky/tacky mats, and chemical baths. The relative pros and cons of these will be discussed in a future blog post. This blog post focuses on shoe covers and a revolutionary technology for putting them on and taking them off.

Shoe covers are essential in many applications for keeping environments clean and free from contamination. In some cases, you want to prevent whatever is on the floor from getting on your shoes. Other times you want or need to prevent contaminants on your shoes from getting on the floors in your environment for maintenance and sanitation, health and safety, infection control and other reasons. In the past people had to apply and remove their shoe covers manually, but this is time-consuming, can be dangerous, and is definitely not clean. Alternatively, many entities are now utilizing automatic shoe cover dispensers and removers to address these issues. Here are seven reasons why:

Speed: it’s faster

No bones about it, putting shoe covers on the old-fashioned way is time-consuming – the entire process, which includes grabbing a pair of shoe covers and finding a place to put them on, easily takes somewhere between 30 and 45 seconds each and every time. Removing them can take even longer, especially in an environment that requires more extensive hygiene practices. With Shoe Inn’s revolutionary automatic shoe cover dispensers and removers, the time is reduced to about five (5) seconds!

Efficiency = productivity = $$$

Applying shoe covers faster and more efficiently means employees can get to work faster. The Shoe Inn system makes the process of applying and removing shoe covers AT LEAST four times (4x) faster. This significantly shorter gowning time equals increased efficiency that translates to increased productivity, meaning you are not wasting money paying your employees to put on shoe covers but instead are paying them in their work environment where they are being productive. Cumulatively, these small time saving increments add up to big savings for your business!

Easy breezy

Putting shoe covers on is easy for some people, a walk in the park. However, for others it can be a real challenge for a variety of legitimate reasons. Many, many times we’ve been told by people at tradeshows (with colorful, choice words) how much they despise, detest, even flat out refuse to put shoe covers on. Employ automatic shoe cover dispensers, which make it so much easier to put booties on, and those challenges and objections will vanish, thereby increasing compliance. Same goes for the remover, just at the back end of the process.

Safety rules

Automatic shoe cover dispensers and removers keep employees and visitors safer by reducing the risk of injuring themselves while putting shoe covers on and taking them off. Instead of bouncing around while attempting to balance on one foot and lifting the other leg, which we have dubbed the “bootie hop” (see The Bootie Hop video), people can safely apply and remove their shoe covers in an ergonomically friendly manner. The handlebars found on the Shoe Inn Stay dispenser and both ASCR removers make it even safer and easier. Say goodbye to those workers’ comp claims!

It’s cleaner

Putting shoe covers on and taking them off by hand is dirty business. Your shoes, particularly the bottoms, are gross – just think about everything you’ve stepped in and on while walking around streets, parking lots, subways, parks, trails, public bathrooms, etc. It is almost inevitable that you’re going to touch your shoes while putting shoe covers on manually and thus contaminate your hands. Depending on the environment, used shoe covers can be soiled as well so automatic shoe cover removers do the dirty work for you.

Save precious space

Oftentimes wherever shoe covers need to be put on and/or taken off, space is at a premium. Gowning benches and chairs take up space and can be obstructions. Shoe cover dispensers and removers take up much less space, especially proportionately when factoring in how much more efficient they are in facilitating people getting through the process. Fewer benches and chairs mean more space for other necessities.

Dressed to impress

Manually putting shoe covers on and taking them off is so old school. While there will always be a place for doing certain things the old-fashioned way, why not look professional and impress your customers, visitors, regulators, inspectors and auditors? In fact, you can customize your Shoe Inn dispensers and removers with your corporate logo, motto/slogan, contact information, etc. to further cement your brand.

As you can see, there are many benefits to implementing an automatic shoe cover dispensing and removal system. Want to know more? Check out our line of shoe cover dispensers, shoe covers and removers or contact us. At Shoe Inn, we make putting shoe covers on and taking them off faster, easier, safer and cleaner!

USP 800 versus 797: New Guide for Handling Hazardous Drugs Includes Shoe Covers

USP <800>, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention’s new standard for handling hazardous drugs (HDs) in healthcare settings, includes significant safety standards for all healthcare workers, as well as patients and the general public, who have access to facilities where HDs are prepared. This includes pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians, nurses, physician assistants, home health care workers, veterinarians, and veterinary technicians. Entities that store, transport, prepare, or administer HDs are also affected, including but not limited to pharmacies, hospitals, patient treatment clinics, physicians’ practice facilities, and veterinary clinics.

USP <800> provides facilities with direction on how to set policy and identify what needs to be done for employee safety while compounding and dispensing HDs. These new safety standards expand upon USP <797>, which focused primarily on minimizing the risk of contaminating medicines when compounding sterile IV preparations. USP <800>, on the other hand, is aimed primarily at addressing the entire life cycle of an HD so that all who might come in contact with it are protected.

USP <797> and <800> are related in that each refer to a chapter in the US Pharmacopoeia. USP <800> is not just limited to chemotherapy but also many drugs that now fall under the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) list. USP <800> has a minor component that currently falls under USP <797> this year but will become fully enforceable in December 2019 and will require full cleanroom and garbing precautions. USP <797> is under revision; therefore the current version will hold until at least the next year. This is the year the Joint Commission and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is requiring compliance with USP <797>. Since this is the first year that the CMS plans to enforce the IV compounding regulations, most facilities are scrambling to meet compliance.

Health Effects Resulting from Exposure to Hazardous Drugs

Growing evidence, which has been accumulated over decades by the USP, Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association, Oncology Nursing Society, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that occupational exposure to the more than 200 HDs commonly used in healthcare settings can cause acute and chronic health issues. In addition, over 100 studies have documented evidence of HD contamination in the workplace, including the presence of HDs in workers’ urine. With nearly 8,000,000 healthcare workers exposed to HDs each year, USP <800> aims to prevent associated acute and long-term health effects.

Required Upgrades Under USP <800> Include Shoe Covers

Personal protective equipment (PPE)(gowns; head, hair, and shoe covers; and two pairs of chemotherapy gloves) is required for compounding both sterile and non-sterile HDs, and two pairs of such gloves are required for administering antineoplastic HDs. Facilities also need to develop standard operating procedures regarding appropriate PPE for any workers who otherwise handle HDs.

Both USP <797> and <800> include several references to shoe covers as detailed below.

Compliant Shoe Covers + Automatic Shoe Cover Application and Removal

Shoe Inn’s shoe covers meet USP <797> and <800> guidelines. If you want to take make putting shoe covers on faster, easier, safer and cleaner, go with an automatic shoe cover dispenser like the Shoe Inn Stay. You can even take it a step further by implementing an automatic shoe cover remover. These products help eliminate workplace injuries, prevent contamination, and save precious time (see just how quick and easy in our application and removal videos).

USP <800> became effective on July 1, 2018.

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USP <797> references to shoe covers

Appropriate personnel protective equipment (PPE) shall be worn when compounding in a BSC or CACI and when using CSTD devices. PPE should include gowns, face masks, eye protection, hair covers, shoe covers or dedicated shoes, double gloving with sterile chemo-type gloves, and compliance with manufacturers’ recommendations when using a CACI.

After donning dedicated shoes or shoe covers, head and facial hair covers, and face masks…

When compounding personnel exit the compounding area during a work shift, the exterior gown may be removed and retained in the compounding area if not visibly soiled, to be re-donned during that same work shift only. However, shoe covers, hair and facial hair covers, face masks/eye shields, and gloves shall be replaced with new ones before re-entering the compounding area, and proper hand hygiene shall be performed.

Appendix I: Order of compounding garb and cleansing in ante-area: shoes or shoe covers, head and facial hair covers, face mask, fingernail cleansing, hand and forearm washing and drying; non-shedding gown.

Appendix III: Dons shoe covers or designated clean-area shoes one at a time, placing the covered or designated shoe on clean side of the line of demarcation, as appropriate.

Appendix III: Removes shoe covers or shoes one at a time, ensuring that uncovered foot is placed on the dirty side of the line of demarcation and performs hand hygiene again. (Removes and discards shoe covers every time the compounding area is exited).

USP <800> references to shoe covers

Gowns, head, hair, shoe covers, and two pairs of chemotherapy gloves are required for compounding sterile and non-sterile HDs.

Head and hair covers (including beard and moustache, if applicable), shoe covers, and sleeve covers provide protection from contact with HD residue. When compounding HDs, a second pair of shoe covers must be donned before entering the C-SEC and doffed when exiting the C-SEC. Shoe covers worn in HD handling areas must not be worn to other areas to avoid spreading HD contamination and exposing other healthcare workers.

Hospital Employee Safety: Slips and Falls

Hospitals are one of the most hazardous places to work according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In fact, hospital injuries occurred at almost twice the rate for private industry as a whole in 2011. In terms of lost-time rates, it is more hazardous to work in a hospital than in manufacturing or construction.

Hospitals have unique risks (lifting/repositioning patients, needlesticks), slippery surfaces, and a variety of other hazards. Also, some caregivers feel it is their ethical duty to put their patients’ safety and health before their own.

For 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that fully one quarter (25%) of all hospital caregiver injuries was from slips, trips and falls! Considering the slippery floors in hospitals and the body positioning and movements that caregivers employ in performing their jobs, this statistic is somewhat understandable. Injuries from slipping can impact employees’ ability to do their jobs, and result in decreased productivity, lost workdays, and expensive worker compensation claims.

As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published a guide for Slip, Trip, and Fall Prevention for Healthcare Workers. Though the guide does not address shoe covers, hospital EH&S/safety/risk managers can go the extra mile by implementing the Shoe Inn automatic shoe cover dispensing system with non-slip/high-traction shoe covers. Shoe Inn can help keep your employees safe by reducing slips and falls associated with putting shoe covers on as well as using superior traction shoe covers.

Sell that House!

Have you ever walked into an open house and been asked to take your shoes off? The realtor’s top priority is to sell the house and, in order to do that, they should keep it as clean as possible. They’re far more likely to sell it faster and for the most money if it is clean and in the best shape.

Let’s face it: our shoes are dirty! The usual suspects like dirt, leaves, mud, gum, sap, and a variety of disgusting things can get all over the floor. Some shoes also scuff up the floor so the realtor has to spend valuable time cleaning after everyone leaves. No wonder that as soon as you walk into the house for sale you may be asked to remove your shoes.

Picture this: you crouch down in front of strangers and spend a minute unlacing your shoes and adding them to the fleet of other peoples’ shoes. Alternatively, maybe you try to balance on one leg while taking each shoe off, successfully or perhaps not so much. Or maybe you put your hand on the wall for balance, thereby leaving a hand print. Then you walk around the house in your (dirty?) socks, which can be quite awkward with other people around. Plus, you can’t walk to the backyard or outside at all because your socks will get dirty (dirtier?) and then you’ll track dirt back into the house. When leaving you have to do the reverse process: more time, more balancing acts, more hand prints on walls.

Does it have to be this way?

Of course not. The solution? Shoe covers. You can simply have visitors put them over their shoes and the floors won’t get dirty, scuffed or scratched. Unfortunately, there is a catch: regular shoe covers can be difficult to put on and you still have the issue of finding a place to sit down or balancing or leaning on a wall. This can create a bit of a traffic jam at the entrance and cause people to get impatient.

This is why Shoe Inn provides automatic shoe cover dispensers, which make it faster, easier, safer and cleaner to put shoe covers on. Nobody has to sit down, balance precariously while trying to avoid falling, leave hand prints on walls, or walk around in their socks. Visitors will be much happier, sufficiently impressed, and more apt to buy the home.

Get your automatic shoe cover dispenser here today!

Cleanrooms

Cleanrooms (or clean rooms) are used in virtually every industry where small particles can adversely affect the manufacturing process. Typically located in scientific research or manufacturing settings, a cleanroom is a controlled environment that has a controlled level of contamination (pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, chemical vapors, and aerosol particles) that is specified by the number of particles per cubic meter (m³) or per cubic foot (ft³) at a specified particle size. Believe it or not, the ambient air outside in a typical city environment contains about 35,000,000 particles per m³, 0.5 μm and larger in diameter, which corresponds to an ISO 9 cleanroom. At the other end of the spectrum, an ISO 1 cleanroom allows no particles in that size range and only 12 particles per m³ of 0.3 μm and smaller.

Cleanroom Overview

A cleanroom is any given contained space where provisions are made to reduce particulate contamination and control other environmental parameters such as pressure, temperature, and humidity. The key component is the HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter that is used to trap 99.97% of particles that are 0.3 microns and larger in size. All of the air delivered to a cleanroom passes through HEPA filters, and in cases where more stringent cleanliness performance is necessary, ULPA (Ultra Low Particulate Air) filters are employed.

The use of multi-layer adhesive mats for cleanrooms is almost universal. Matting can vary in size, color, placement, and number based on the characteristics and logistics of each individual cleanroom.

Personnel who work in cleanrooms go through extensive training in contamination control theory, practices and procedures. They enter and exit the cleanroom through air showers, airlocks, and/or gowning rooms, and they must wear special clothing designed to trap contaminants that are naturally generated by our bodies.

Depending on the room classification or function, personnel gowning may be as limited as lab coats and hairnets/beard covers, or as extensive as being fully enveloped in multiple layered bunny suits with self-contained breathing apparatus. The cleanroom clothing itself must not release fibers or particles to prevent contamination of the environment.

Cleanroom garments include things such as boots, shoes, shoe covers, beard covers, hairnets, bouffant caps, facemasks, coveralls, aprons, frocks/lab coats, gowns, glove and finger cots, hoods, and sleeves. The type of cleanroom garments used reflects the cleanroom classification and product specifications. For example, Class 10,000/ISO 7 cleanrooms may use simple smocks, head covers, and shoe covers. On the other hand, careful gown wearing procedures with a zipped coverall, boots, gloves and complete respirator enclosure are required for Class 10/ISO 4 cleanrooms.

Cleanroom technicians wearing shoe covers

Air Flow Principles for Cleanrooms

Cleanrooms maintain particulate-free air through the use of either HEPA or ULPA filters employing laminar or turbulent air flow principles. Laminar, or unidirectional, airflow systems direct filtered air downward in a constant stream. Laminar airflow systems are typically employed across 80% to 100% of the ceiling to maintain constant air processing and unidirectional flow. Laminar flow criteria are mandated in ISO 1 through ISO 4 cleanrooms. Turbulent, or non-unidirectional, air flow uses both laminar air flow hoods and non-specific velocity filters to keep cleanroom air in constant motion, although not all in the same direction. The rough air seeks to trap particles that may be in the air and drive them towards the floor, where they enter filters and leave the controlled environment.

Proper cleanroom design encompasses the entire air distribution system, including provisions for adequate downstream air returns. In horizontal flow applications, this involves the use of air returns at the downstream boundary of the process. In vertical flow rooms, it requires the use of low wall air returns around the perimeter of the zone. It should be noted that the use of ceiling mounted air returns is contradictory to proper cleanroom system design.

Cleanroom Classifications

Cleanrooms are classified by how clean the air is according to the number and size of particles permitted per volume of air. Federal Standard 209E is used here in the U.S. The newer standard is TC 209 from the ISO (International Standards Organization). Both standards classify a cleanroom by the number of particles found in the laboratory’s air. The cleanroom classification standards 209E and ISO 14644-1 require specific particle count measurements and calculations to classify the cleanliness level of a cleanroom or clean area.

Large numbers like Class 1,000 or Class 100,000 refer to FS 209E, and denote the number of particles of size 0.5 µm or larger permitted per ft³of air. The standard also allows interpolation, so it is possible to describe other classes such as Class 2,000.

Small numbers refer to ISO 14644-1 standards, which specify the decimal logarithm of the number of particles 0.1 µm or larger permitted per m³of air. For example, an ISO 4 cleanroom has at most 10⁴ = 10,000 particles per m³.

Both FS 209E and ISO 14644-1 assume log-log relationships between particle size and particle concentration. For that reason, there is no such thing as zero particle concentration.

US FED STD 209E cleanroom standards

Class	Maximum particles/ft³					ISO equivalent
Class	≥0.1 µm	≥0.2 µm	≥0.3 µm	≥0.5 µm	≥5 µm	ISO equivalent
1	35	7.5	3	1	0.007	ISO 3
10	350	75	30	10	0.07	ISO 4
100	3,500	750	300	100	0.7	ISO 5
1,000	35,000	7,500	3,000	1,000	7	ISO 6
10,000	350,000	75,000	30,000	10,000	70	ISO 7
100,000	3.5 x 10⁶	750,000	300,000	100,000	700	ISO 8

ISO 14644-1 cleanroom standards

Class	Maximum particles/m³						STD 209E equivalent
Class	≥0.1 µm	≥0.2 µm	≥0.3 µm	≥0.5 µm	≥1 µm	≥5 µm	STD 209E equivalent
ISO 1	10	2.37	1.02	0.35	0.083	0.0029
ISO 2	100	23.7	10.2	3.5	0.83	0.029
ISO 3	1,000	237	102	35	8.3	0.29	Class 1
ISO 4	10,000	2,370	1,020	352	83	2.9	Class 10
ISO 5	100,000	23,700	10,200	3,520	832	29	Class 100
ISO 6	1.0 x 10⁶	237,000	102,000	35,200	8,320	293	Class 1,000
ISO 7	1.0 x 10⁷	2.37 x 10⁶	1,020,000	352,000	83,200	2,930	Class 10,000
ISO 8	1.0 x 10⁸	2.37 x 10⁷	1.02 x 10⁷	3,520,000	832,000	29,300	Class 100,000
ISO 9	1.0 x 10⁹	2.37 x 10⁸	1.02 x 10⁸	35,200,000	8,320,000	293,000	Room air

How to Transition from ‘Dirty’ to ‘Clean’ While Booting Up in a Gowning Room

Prior to entering a cleanroom, employees need to get “gowned up” in special clothing designed to trap contaminants that are naturally generated by our bodies. Depending on the room classification or function, personnel gowning may be as limited as hairnets/beard covers and lab coats, or as extensive as being fully enveloped in multiple layered bunny suits with self-contained breathing apparatus.

The Gowning Room

Cleanroom personnel generally “boot up” in dedicated shoes or shoe covers, and in order to make sure they don’t get contaminants on the shoe covers before entering the cleanroom, they typically follow a transition protocol from the “dirty” to the “clean” side of the floor/room. This usually entails a gowning bench or chair placed along a line that has been taped or painted on the floor, or along the line between two different colored floor tiles. While sitting, the employee puts the first shoe cover on, puts that foot down on the “clean” side, then repeats the action for the second foot. Sometimes regular shoe covers tear while being put on, so the employee has to take them off, throw them away, and start the process over again.

A much easier, safer, and faster way of putting shoe covers on is to use a Shoe Inn automatic shoe cover dispenser. These dispensers are similarly placed along the line between the “dirty” and “clean” parts of the floor. In this setup, while standing on the “dirty” side, the employee puts the first shoe cover on, puts that foot down on the “clean” side, then repeats the action with the second foot and proceeds to the next step in the gowning process. Because the employee does not have to go grab precisely two shoe covers, walk to the bench, sit down, put the shoe covers on, and stand back up, not to mention not having to deal with improperly sized and torn shoe covers, the “booting up” process is much more efficient, which can help alleviate gowning room bottlenecks and significantly improve productivity.