Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has commissioned a highly technical Clean Room at its manufacturing facility at Goodwood, West Sussex. Similar facilities exist in microchip manufacturing plants and in pharmaceutical and medical equipment production facilities.

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Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BMW Group and is a completely separate company from Rolls-Royce plc, the manufacturer of aircraft engines and propulsion systems. Over 2,000 skilled men and women are employed at the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ head office and manufacturing plant at Goodwood, West Sussex, the only place in the world where the company’s super-luxury motor cars are hand-built.

A statement by the automaker said the primary purpose of the Clean Room is to provide a sterile environment within which delicate and highly bespoke items can be assembled.

The eighth generation of Rolls-Royce Phantom brings with it an unprecedented opportunity to exhibit works of art and design within the motor car itself, in an area named, the Gallery. The Gallery is formed of an uninterrupted piece of glass which spans the width of Phantom’s fascia, behind which a recess presents an illuminated stage, an area for patrons to embrace the unique storytelling characteristic of the marque.

At the conception of the Gallery, a requirement for clean manufacturing was identified and extensive research was conducted in order to create a Bespoke Rolls-Royce Clean Room at the marque’s headquarters in Goodwood, West Sussex – itself a Global Centre of Luxury Manufacturing Excellence. The lifespan of Phantom is remarkable, with over two-thirds of all Rolls-Royces created over the marque’s 116-year history still in road-worthy condition. It is therefore essential that the Gallery can stand the test of time by preserving precious and personal items for as long as the motor car itself.

Experts from the Home of Rolls-Royce visited pharmaceutical and microprocessor Clean Rooms to fully understand these complex manufacturing laboratories and learn of the procedures and requirements necessary to create a medical grade, particle free, sterile enclosure. Even a minute speck of dust would detract from the aesthetic perfection of the Gallery. The assembly therefore requires meticulous attention to detail.

The Gallery Clean Room contains four medical grade, positively pressurised spaces. A highly technical sensor continually measures the particulate concentration of each space. Any particulates measuring above 0.001 of a micron are detected, a staggering statistic considering a human hair is between 50-100 microns in diameter. This process enables continual assessment and the opportunity to identify areas for improvement. If contamination is detected, the Gallery Clean Room associates are able to identify exactly when and where the contamination took place, in order to improve future assembly. Planning and quality engineers monitor daily the particle count inside the Gallery Clean Room to ensure that no deep cleans that might interrupt daily production are required.

A complex filtration system is built into the ceiling of the Gallery Clean Room to continually remove unwanted particles from the re-circulating air. This system is, for aesthetic reasons, covered in a wooden veneer – this is, after all, situated at the Home of Rolls-Royce.

There are only five associates at the Home of Rolls-Royce trained to operate in the Gallery Clean Room, with only two permitted to enter at any one time. These associates must comply with strict guidelines to prevent possible contamination. No cosmetics, hair products or deodorant may be used.