$11 Billion Cleanroom Hardware And Consumables
Market In 2009
The market for cleanroom hardware will grow from $3 billion in 2005 to $4.3 billion in 2009 while the market for consumables will grow from $5.7 billion to $7.3 billion in the same period. This will result in a total cleanroom market of $11.6 billion in 2009. These are the recently revised forecasts in the online Cleanroom: World Markets, published by the McIlvaine Company.
Cleanroom hardware is used to maintain recirculating air at a level up to 500,000 times cleaner than that in the typical residence. Cleanroom consumables are specially designed clothing, furniture, gloves, wipes, and paper which minimize the contribution of particles or gases to the atmosphere.
The largest purchaser of cleanroom hardware and consumables is the semiconductor industry. This year consumables purchases will exceed $2 billion.
The fastest growing application is flat panel displays. Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs account for about 80 percent of the entire flat-panel market, with thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs) a large percentage of that. TFT-LCDs are used in notebook computers, desktop monitors and TVs.
Other technologies include Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED), Plasma Display Panels (PDP), Field Emission Displays (FEDs) and Flexible Panels (FPDs). The OLED industry has experienced high annual growth rates due to the increased demand for small displays for cell phones, MP3 players and car stereos.
Most of the FPDs are manufactured in Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China. Purchases of cleanroom consumables by this segment will rise from $300 million this year to over $500 million in 2009.
Over 1.3 million people are working in cleanrooms around-the-world. The need for ultrapure air keeps growing along with the trends toward miniaturization, increased reliability and safer products.
The miniaturization trend epitomized by nano technology developments is a factor because the smaller the product, the more damage which can be done by a particle of a given size. The emphasis on increased reliability results in greater investment in technology to reduce defects caused by impure air.
The focus on safer products results in greater investments in microbial protection in the filling of parenteral drugs, sensitive operations in hospitals, isolation of disease carriers and other applications where there is danger either to the worker making the product or to the purchaser of the product.
The concerns about avian flu and the strategy to isolate those who are sick could substantially increase the sale of cleanroom hardware and consumables.
For more information on Cleanrooms: World Markets, click on: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/cleanroom.html .
Bob McIlvaine
847-784-0012
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com