Airlock
According to DIN 1946 Part 1, the airlock is the “ space for traffic connection with air separation of areas of different air standards with at least two mutually locked doors ”. A distinction is also made between the active and the passive air lock , depending on whether or not it is equipped with “ mechanical air delivery to fulfill a ventilation and air conditioning task ” (see also: web links ).
functionality
This is intended to keep certain components of the air constant in a closed room when additional air is supplied from outside. This is also intended to ensure that certain factors cannot penetrate or leave the room at all or only to a limited extent. Maintaining a constant temperature and a specified humidity for certain objects and processes are just as important as the purity of the air. It is used both in purely technical processing and processing processes as well as for the benefit of people, in order to ensure a safe stay in the respective room.
On the one hand, active air locks are used to achieve the desired state. The most well-known is the air conditioning system , where the focus is sometimes on temperature and humidity and sometimes on the cleanliness of the air, from temperature-controlled offices and sales rooms to aseptic isolation wards in hospitals and dust-free workplaces for high-quality products.
In some cases, a further airlock is required for the people who visit the room in order to prevent an associated undesired change in the air conditions in the closed room or the escape of particles from the protected room into the environment. This can be found e.g. B. in the following cases:
Areas of application
- Clean room technology - as a person or material lock between areas of different clean room classes
- Production of high-tech parts (microchips etc.);
- Manufacture of medicines and medical devices;
- Processing of food;
- Paint shop, joinery, etc .;
- mechanical processing of punched cards at constant temperature and humidity;
- Finding and leaving isolated persons ( quarantine , reverse isolation );
- Finding isolated objects, e.g. B. old pamphlets and historical lost property that can fall apart under normal environmental conditions;
- Protection of army bunkers and storage facilities against NBC weapons .
If the air pressure is to be maintained or changed as the only component, it is usually a pressure lock . When both pressure and other components are affected, this is usually referred to as an airlock. This is also the common name for locks in space travel for docking or getting in and out.