What Are Room Pressure Monitors and Where Are They Used?

Room pressure monitors are devices that monitor differential pressure between two rooms or areas. Differential pressure is the difference of two pressures being sensed.

There are several applications where it is important to maintain a pressure difference between two rooms. This helps to ensure that there are no contaminants entering or exiting a protected area. In a medical setting, an isolation room requires a pressure differential to make sure that no bacteria, pathogens, or viruses enter (or leave) the isolation room. This protects healthcare professionals, patients, and other guests, and minimizes the spread of germs. Room pressure monitors would also be used in areas such as: pharmaceutical manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturing, clean rooms, research labs, vivariums, and clean manufacturing areas.

In a semiconductor or clean room manufacturing environment, a positive pressure would need to be maintained so that no dust, particles, or additional contaminants enter the space. Contaminants in the clean room would compromise the manufacturing quality, creating defects and non-working products. In pharmaceutical manufacturing, strict requirements need to be met to ensure manufactured drugs are not contaminated and are safe before they reach consumers.

Room pressure monitors provide local indication of pressure, which helps to make sure that spaces are being kept up to standard requirements. Advanced units can also provide color status indication, audible alarm features, and communication with a building management system (BMS). Both color status and audible alarm indication make identifying any potential issues easier, while communication with the BMS allows for remote monitoring.

Historically and to this day, the Dwyer Magnehelic® gage has been used to measure differential pressure in manufacturing clean rooms and facilities around the world. Our new Series RPME FlexiSENSE™ room pressure monitor and Series RPMC StabiliSENSE™ critical room pressure monitor provide the advanced features and high accuracies necessary for use with pharmaceutical, semiconductor, and other clean manufacturing areas.

The Series RPME room pressure monitor and RPMC StabiliSENSE™ critical room pressure monitor can each be flush or surface mounted in the same size diameter hole as a Magnehelic® gage. This simplifies upgrades from a Magnehelic® gage to the new room pressure monitors. They both come standard with two independent SPDT relays and a 4-20 mA analog output. The RPME contains a piezoresistive pressure sensor, while the RPMC contains a capacitance cell pressure sensor, providing a higher degree of accuracy and long-term stability.

The Series RPME and RPMC are complete systems allowing for access to pressure, security, calibration, and alarm setup. Visual indication, an easy-to-clean stainless steel bezel, and passcode protection make pressure monitoring in critical applications easier than ever.