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Intuitive Surgical didn’t change its cleanroom ventilation strategy because energy models said it should. It changed course because it finally had data that its manufacturing and EHS teams were willing to trust.
The company operates Class A cleanroom environments used to manufacture surgical instruments that go inside the human body. Those spaces were running high air-change rates around the clock—despite the fact that particle counts were only measured quarterly.
“We only monitor the particle count on a quarterly basis,” said Brian Larson, who leads facilities and energy work at Intuitive Surgical. “So we are changing the air out a significant amount of times and using a lot of energy to do so.”
The barrier wasn’t awareness—it was risk. Cleanroom downtime can cost “millions of dollars along the line every single hour,” according to Intuitive’s energy partner Tom Arnold of Gridium. Without evidence of safety, even discussing HVAC setbacks was off the table.
That changed when a mechanical engineering intern secured funding and installed a continuous particle counter.
“Nobody in the organization ever had this data,” Arnold said.
The results were hard to ignore. Weekend particle counts were “basically nothing,” showing the rooms were far cleaner than required when unoccupied. The data also made disruption visible—janitorial activity showed up immediately as particle spikes.
“That case for setback is actually pretty strong now,” Arnold said.
Instead of arguing for blanket changes, the team could point to specific conditions and time periods where ventilation could safely be reduced. Larson emphasized this wasn’t about human comfort, as these energy projects typically are. “This is manufacturing,” he said. “You have EHS, manufacturing executives, and huge risk exposure.”
The project is still early, but the decision-making constraint has shifted—from fear of unknown risk to evidence-backed tradeoffs.
If you’d like to learn more, here are some ways to stay updated on stories like this:
Intuitive Surgical didn’t change its cleanroom ventilation strategy because energy models said it should. It changed course because it finally had data that its manufacturing and EHS teams were willing to trust.
The company operates Class A cleanroom environments used to manufacture surgical instruments that go inside the human body. Those spaces were running high air-change rates around the clock—despite the fact that particle counts were only measured quarterly.
“We only monitor the particle count on a quarterly basis,” said Brian Larson, who leads facilities and energy work at Intuitive Surgical. “So we are changing the air out a significant amount of times and using a lot of energy to do so.”
The barrier wasn’t awareness—it was risk. Cleanroom downtime can cost “millions of dollars along the line every single hour,” according to Intuitive’s energy partner Tom Arnold of Gridium. Without evidence of safety, even discussing HVAC setbacks was off the table.
That changed when a mechanical engineering intern secured funding and installed a continuous particle counter.
“Nobody in the organization ever had this data,” Arnold said.
The results were hard to ignore. Weekend particle counts were “basically nothing,” showing the rooms were far cleaner than required when unoccupied. The data also made disruption visible—janitorial activity showed up immediately as particle spikes.
“That case for setback is actually pretty strong now,” Arnold said.
Instead of arguing for blanket changes, the team could point to specific conditions and time periods where ventilation could safely be reduced. Larson emphasized this wasn’t about human comfort, as these energy projects typically are. “This is manufacturing,” he said. “You have EHS, manufacturing executives, and huge risk exposure.”
The project is still early, but the decision-making constraint has shifted—from fear of unknown risk to evidence-backed tradeoffs.
If you’d like to learn more, here are some ways to stay updated on stories like this:
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This is a great piece!
I agree.