RAL Space

Clean Room Construction (CRC) worked with Willmott Dixon Construction to design and build a cleanroom suite for RAL Space - the world-leading space industry research centre in Oxfordshire.

The 580m2 facility on the Harwell Campus will be used for the manufacture of components used in space systems. The suite, which occupies most of the ground floor of a new building, comprises ISO 5 and ISO 7 classification areas. Through innovative design, these two areas enable personnel and equipment to flow freely from one to the other.

Change rooms and materials airlocks are also incorporated into the facility. The HVAC system features energy-saving control measures which enable the relaxation of selected control parameters and the use of free cooling, conditions permitting. The cleanroom floors and walls are static dissipative and the suite’s humidity, temperature, room pressure and particulate load are closely controlled and monitored.

The project was completed on schedule with the Science Technology Facilities Council (STFC) taking immediate occupancy to continue their leading edge specification work for the space technology industry.

CRC collaborated with Willmott Dixon on previous RAL Space projects, including a space-age cleanroom facility extension for testing satellites for use in future space missions. This project consisted of 15 cleanrooms, including one of the tallest cleanrooms ever built by CRC, with some of the ceilings exceeding 12m in height to accommodate the specialist equipment.

View RAL’s virtual tour here - showing the cleanrooms designed & built by CRC.