Cleanroom Laundry Giant Prudential Challenges the Consumables Market
By Susan English
Round Rock, TX–In August, Prudential Cleanroom Services, a division of Prudential Overall Supply of Irvine, CA, announced the acquisition of Alameda Industries (San Diego, CA), a distributor of cleanroom consumables. The acquisition represents another step in Prudential`s aggressive entry into the cleanroom consumable products distribution arena, initiated over a year ago with its acquisition of Pacific Cleanroom Supply (Milpitas, CA). A major driver behind the acquisition was Alameda`s disposable apparel manufacturing facility in Tijuana, Mexico, which will allow Prudential access into the expanding Mexican market. In 1994-95, Prudential moved into the international distribution of cleanroom consumables by opening facilities in Malaysia and Singapore. Domestically, Prudential Cleanroom Service has four consumable distribution facilities: Milpitas and San Diego, CA; Phoenix, AZ and Austin, TX. In addition, the company has garment processing facilities in Fremont and Los Angeles, CA; Mesa, AZ; Albuquerque, NM (Class 1) and Austin, TX (Class 1), representing 1,600 employees.
According to Chuck Wright, Prudential`s director of sales and marketing, the company`s intent is to provide a “service link” to their customers and prospects by offering complete reusable cleanroom garment and consumable services in combination with the industrial uniform and dust control services provided by Prudential Overall Supply`s Industrial Services Division. The division consists of 16 industrial services production plants and two dust control systems plants. The company`s aim is to service the complete textile needs of potential customers, as well as its over 35,000 existing accounts. Division sales manager Bob Spector observes that “everybody`s trying to shorten their vendor list, and we can supply all needs in critical and non-critical areas within a facility with just one supplier.” This total service package enables Prudential to supply all the cleanroom needs for a controlled environment production employee, says Chuck Wright. “We can provide executive services` shirts and pants for supervisory personnel, industrial work clothes for the janitorial staff and dock receiving people. We can have walk-off mats at the front door to prevent outside tracking of dust coming into the building, treated dust mops that take care of the internal cleaning at night and dust cloths that clean off the desk tops and furniture at night–all with our own products.”
Cleanroom industry consultant Chuck Berndt of C.W. Berndt Associates Ltd. (Highland Park, IL) observes that Prudential`s cleanroom laundry expertise and years of experience in the market uniquely qualifies it for this turnkey niche. “For users, it means better products and better service at a more competitive price. It means more informed service–and that`s the key.” n
As we all know water represents one of the top three costs in semi manufacturing and in many manufacturing centers (Austin, Singapore, etc)water will continue to rise as a percentage of cost. Much has been done to reduce the or reuse the manufacturing water but little has been done to effect the overall “water footprint” of these operations. As an example all Semi Fabs require the extended use of cleanroom garments. These garments are washed in large cleanroom laundries on a regular basis requiring an average of 3 gallons of water (5 gal if deionized) for each garment. This is heated, filtered and often deionized water. CO2Nexus.com has developed and tested CO2 based laundry systems that require 0 process water and create 0 negative impact to the environment – all at a cost less than water based solutions. #cgscox