Cleanroom benefits high-tech firms
A cleanroom at Pudong International Airport had enabled checks on 38 groups of goods, including electronic components and chips, worth about 680 million yuan (US$99 million), by June, customs officers said on Tuesday.
The room, with a 1-square-meter window, is the first of its kind at the nation's airports and can check sensitive electronic components without damaging them.
In the room, a worker wearing special clothing opens packages and takes products close to the window where a customs officer uses a handheld device to check if the item is as declared and carries out other routine checks.
The 30-square-meter cleanroom, which looks like a 40ft freight container, made its debut on April 4 this year at the storage area under customs' supervision at the airport. Previously, due to the restricted conditions at the site, these type of goods were often sent elsewhere for checks.
The temperature inside the room is kept at around 22.5 degrees Celsius and humidity is set at 47.5 percent with a 7.5-percent deviation allowed.
"In the past, the customs' checks on our integrated circuit plates were carried out in our company at a certain time, which raised the time and human cost and reduced the efficiency of customs clearance," said an executive with a local hi-tech company. "After the cleanroom was put into use, the customs officers can complete checks at the storage area, which saves the costs and brings us great convenience."
In recent years, with the booming of hi-tech industries, the number of imported and exported hi-tech products has risen sharply. Since these goods are easily affected by factors such as dust, temperature, oxidation, static electricity and humidity, there are high demands on the environment where they receive checks. Some photosensitive electronic components can't even be X-rayed.