Hello, BFM Club members and Facebook fans. In this edition, I befuddled you all with this mysterious topic and you may ask “how does Listerine factory renovation have anything to do with stopping rain leakage into the building?” In today’s article, I have all the answers that you need to know how to prevent rain damage and the problem of mold and fungus spread in the building ventilation system. Listerine is a household brand of mouthwash not only Thailand but all over the world. The factory has high manufacturing standards and hygienic practices. This makes good sense because the factory produces mouthwash solution to kill germs or else they may introduce germs in our mouths.

Aseptic mouthwash product requires a special kind of manufacturing process. The factory has to put cleanliness into its first production priority for customer’s benefits. The production lines are to be shielded from germs prevailing in the outside environment and keeping the process very clean and aseptic. Even the workers must maintain maximum personal hygiene and the ventilation of the work place needs a special design requirement. All the fresh air entering the factory floor is filtered with high performance filters preventing any physical, chemical and biological contaminations. This is not any ordinary filter. It is a high quality filter and quite expensive. The whole germ-free and hygienic operation is depending upon the quality and design of these filters.
At this Listerine factory, overall operation seems to go well except this filter system can cause mold and fungus problems every once in a while. After heavy rain fall, the filters originally intending to deter germs are often contaminated by mold growth and provide a good matrix to disperse germs into the production lines. Hypothetically, the filter matrix collects mist and rainwater from ventilation louvers due to poor designs. In the normal operation, the fresh air is constantly drawn into the air handling unit for production regardless of the weather condition outside (rain or sunshine). When it is raining hard, the moist air and drizzle are accumulated onto this filter matrix. The moist condition and dirt accumulation on these filters are ideal for mold and fungus growth. These microorganisms can grow from the dirty side and penetrate to the other clean surface by using the filter medium as a host. Then the debris and spores of these living microorganisms can be released from the contaminated filters into the production environment. The factory did not try to attack the problem at its root but chose an easy way out by keep changing the expensive filters time after time. When considering the problem of the contaminated filter system carefully, the cause of the mold and fungus growth was due to the leakage of the rainwater (not the filter itself) from poor louvre design. 
Not many people know there is such thing as high performance louvres (COLT, UK) out there in the market. This louvre design enables 100% leakage prevention again rainwater and mist but still allows good air flow and ventilation. All buildings in this country up to now have to settle with traditional and obsolete louvre products and many of them end up keep fixing and solving the ventilation problems caused by rain leakage.
Nowadays, there is an official dealer of Colt’s high performance louvres in Thailand. Colt’s ventilation louvres can put an end to rain leakage and the mold growth in the unhygienic ventilation system. The solution is to stop the rain mist via louvre passage altogether. However, the fresh air has to still flow through the louvers into the building. Good air flow is a must because in a big ventilation system the design of the fresh air intake calls for low pressure drop across this louvre system. 
A study of Colt’s high performance louvre (model 3UL) demonstrated its ability to stop rainwater leakage from the fresh air inlets and water accumulation on the filters. Hence, this high performance louvre can prevent the mold and fungus growth entirely. The evaluation of rainwater leakage showed that this louvre model 3UL can  provide 100% rainwater prevention (or Class A rain leakage-proof) and still maintain high ventilation and the flow of fresh air when using with the Class 3 ventilation fan system (or 0.299 maximum ventilation coefficient). This product is well-suited for many building ventilations and applications. 
Also the installation of Colt’s high performance louvre model 3UL in a factory can satisfy the GMP standard in terms of low accumulation of airborne particles due to the special design of the louvre grills and smooth coating surface. Therefore, any renovation of the ventilation louver with Colt’s product can meet any ventilation specification applicable to any current setting and stop the mold growth on HEPA filters permanently.
We hope our today’s edition can give you a good solution to rainwater leakage into a building and mold and fungus growth in air ventilation system. Colt’s high performance louvres from UK are suitable for many types of installation and functions in a building. We can provide technical supports and have a solution center to take care of your problems. With a wide selection of Colt’s products, we sure can find a right solution to fulfill your requirements and budgets. Good bye for this edition.
Composed by 
Sasin Vibulbandhitkij Product Manager       B.F.M. Co., Ltd.
Thank you :Johnson & Johnson (THAILAND) Ltd.
     Any suggestions are welcome at sasin@bfm.co.th and you can also find us on Fan page FACEBOOK or our website at www.bfm.co.th.