A reality of manufacturing chips or wafers of any kind is that some kind of inventory of dangerous gas must be kept on-hand and that the economics of employing all of it at once in an automatic gas cabinet are not that compelling. Consequently, gas that is either extremely flammable or otherwise corrosive and lethal needs to be stored in a manner that will not threaten the environment – both in production and around it – and the people in and around the production area.

One of the main ways this is done in real world manufacturing is by keeping gasses housed separately from the production area in an environment that can be sealed and decontaminated remotely – an environment that really doesn’t different much at all from a clean-room except that in it isn’t used for production, since dust, humidity, and other impurities can compromise valves, regulators, and pose hazards to both safety and quality of production. Sensors are employed to detect any leaks before they become hazardous so they can be addressed. And fire safety equipment is abundant so that even a spark can be extinguished, lest it become something more. Rooms that are too warm pose a threat to some more volatile compressed gasses, since temperatures significantly higher than room temperature can raise pressure in the tank to the point of explosion.

Gas cylinder cabinets add another level safety to storage versus leaving cylinders stacked or standing upright in the ground. Gravity being what it is, round cylinders can often be unruly, and the slightest disturbance can knock them over, causing them (in very rare cases) to leak, spark – or, in the rarest and most dangerous of cases – both leak and spark simultaneously. Cabinets provide a good resting place for cylinders that will keep them steady. A well-fitted one will even keep things relatively stable during an earthquake.

Of course, gas cylinder cabinets can be automated with manifolds and an on-board computer and transformed into an automatic gas cabinet that can dispense gas to the process site from a remote storage location. This is not prohibitively expensive and some argue that it is safer than storing large inventories of gas outright since there are more valves between the gas itself and the atmosphere.

Still, the reality of semiconductor manufacturing is that dangerous gasses must be used and that sometimes inventory beyond what is needed for a production cycle must be kept on hand. In such cases, a solid galvanized cabinet placed in a good storage location will provide an added level of safety.

The old cliché goes that what’s good for morality and profitability in business rarely align. While honest business practices have shown us that this is far from true, there is one area in which doing the right thing is undoubtedly good for business, even to the sinister cynic: ensuring the safety of the work environment. Time lost due to incidents, along with any liability, has a very real impact on the bottom line: just ask any coal mining CEO. While high-tech production is not generally thought of as a dangerous job, there are very real risks involving the use of volatile gasses – risks that should be minimized for the good employees and the smooth, on-time operation of production lines.

One of the single-most effective and inexpensive ways to reduce risk in high-tech and semiconductor production is to ensure that all volatile gasses are used and stored properly. A surprising portion of incidents involving the use of dangerous gasses in clean-room environments can actually be traced back to issues in storage. Haphazard storage practices can cause warping in O-rings, valves and seals that manifest themselves in leaks or contamination. And a lousy storage environment can turn any small defect into a serious hazard if proper sensors and fire equipment are not in place to quickly quash any issue. Investing in gas cylinder storage is therefore an investment in insurance that has a high return in piece of mind and in real dollar terms, considering the low cost of storage cabinets and racks or of setting up a larger storage facility versus the cost of any incident. Good storage practices even reduce insurance premiums for larger facilities because they are so effective at lowering the chance of incident.

Gas cabinets provide one good solution for gas cylinder storage when they are to be used for production. While it is inadvisable for any manufacturer to carry a large inventory of cylinders of the dangerous gasses used in production, inventory that isn’t being used in production can and should be stored in a cabinet similar to those used in production: a cabinet with good leak protection, leak sensors, and built in fire safety equipment that can quickly extinguish whatever problem might arise. Cylinders of the most volatile gasses should also be kept in an area not unlike the clean-room environment, where dust and other contaminants are unlikely to interfere at critical connection points, and where temperature is unlikely to have any material effect on the metal that comprises the cylinder and any regulators of manifolds that are kept with it.