A dispensing booth is a specialized piece of cleanroom equipment, often referred to as a local purification equipment or purifying equipment for materials sampling. Essentially, dispensing booth is also called a downflow booth, sampling booth, or weighing booth, and its primary function is to provide a controlled environment for handling powders and liquids, particularly during weighing and dispensing operations. These booths are designed to protect the operator, the product, and the surrounding cleanroom environment from contamination by airborne particles and dust. The dispensing booth creates a localized clean work area, minimizing the risk of cross-contamination and ensuring the integrity of sensitive materials, making it indispensable in the pharmaceutical industry, chemical processing, and biotechnology.
The necessity of a dispensing booth arises from the need for high levels of containment and cleanliness that might exceed the general cleanroom classification. While a cleanroom provides an overall controlled environment, operations like handling potent pharmaceutical ingredients or fine chemical powders can generate significant localized dust. A dispensing booth acts as a primary engineering control, capturing these particles at the source. This not only ensures a safe environment for the operator but also prevents the spread of these particles into the wider cleanroom, thereby safeguarding other processes and products from potential contamination. For precise tasks like sampling or weighing, the controlled conditions within a weighing booth or sampling booth are crucial.