Jacobs wins Cypress contract
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Phoenix) has been awarded a design and construction management contract to renovate Cypress Semiconductor's Fab 3 facility in Bloomington, MN. The project entails a $150 million conversion from 6-inch to 8-inch wafer processing. Executives say the conversion at full buildout will increase wafer output at the site by 70 percent.—TGW
HGP line listed under FM4910 for wet bench construction
HGP International's (Somerset, NJ) Brigade product line of chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) sheets for wet bench construction has been listed with FM Global in compliance with its FM4910 Cleanroom Materials Flammability Test Protocol.
Brigade CPVC is lead-free and white in color and provides resistance to high temperatures and chemicals.—TGW
North Safety acquires Arkon
North Safety Products, a global supplier of occupational and safety equipment (Cranston, RI), has acquired Arkon Safety Equipment Inc., a Canadian manufacturer of safety and personal protective equipment with 10 complete product lines. According to executives, the Arkon organization and product lines will be consolidated under the North Safety Products brand. They say Arkon products will enhance North's offerings, as well as add categories not previously part of its inventory, including lockout/tagout, safety signage, protective clothing and traffic safety items.—TGW
Sandia, Ford sign R&D pact
The Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM) and Ford Motor Co. have joined forces to conduct cooperative technology research and development in a variety of areas, including manufacturing, materials science and electronics. The five-year agreement comes with an estimated $5 million price tag, but officials say the time period and financial value could change. Sandia and Ford will share in funding the project according to negotiated terms. The first two projects slated include the evaluation of a cold spray deposition (CSD) process and the follow-on process of evaluating CSD coatings for powertrain components, engine bores and tooling applications. CSD is an emerging high-rate, low-temperature material deposition process with potential applications in automotive manufacturing and in defense and energy programs.—TGW
Report outlines efficiency opportunities at semiconductor fabs
A recent report published by the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center (PPRC; Seattle, WA) outlines opportunities for semiconductor fabs to save money and improve product quality through water and energy efficiency measures. The document, titled Energy and Water Efficiency for Semiconductor Manufacturing, includes specific ways to reduce costs through improved HVAC performance, new approaches to cleanroom design and other innovative practices. It also features an extensive list of resources. The report can be viewed and downloaded at www.pprc.org/pprc/pubs/topics/ semicond/semicond.html. —TGW
Kimberly-Clark spins off protective apparel business
Kimberly-Clark Corp. (Roswell, GA) has taken its Protective Apparel division out of its Away From Home sector and positioned it as a stand-alone business within the company's organizational structure. Executives say this course of action will accelerate the growth rate of Kimberly-Clark's protective apparel line, expanding its position in the marketplace. Dennis Riffer, previously director of Away From Home Worldwide, has been named general manager of the Protective Apparel Business unit. Vince June, former director of business management and pricing for Kimberly-Clark's North American Away From Home business, will serve as director of operations. The unit has also been relocated outside of Kimberly-Clark's headquarters to Alpharetta, GA.—TGW
Design firm launched
Tim Loughran and John Burton, formerly of Performance Contracting, Inc. have founded AdvanceTEC (Midlothian, VA), a firm specializing in the design and construction of cleanrooms for microelectronics, semiconductor, medical, food and pharmaceutical environments. Contact AdvanceTEC at (804) 378-1550. Loughran is the firm's product manager while Burton is engineering manager.—KS
Upgrades help Pfeiffer Vacuum
Upgrades to its 23,400-sq-ft support facility in Silicon Valley has allowed Pfeiffer Vacuum (Nashua, NH)—a producer of vacuum products and services—to expand its semiconductor service capabilities. The former Semivac building features a new area for repairs and service on turbo pumps and departments that can accommodate all brands and pump types. The service center is also capable of repairing and servicing such instruments as quadrupole mass spectrometers, helium leak detectors and other electronics used in semiconductor manufacturing.—TGW
Wafer reclaim company awarded QS-9000 registration
Laporte Electronics' wafer reclaim business in Riddings, near Derby, UK, has been registered to quality systems requirements QS-9000. Executives say the certification, which was assessed and certified by registrars CCS, is the result of a decade of continuous improvement in quality systems within its advance-technology site, where wafers are reclaimed for reuse by chip makers in the UK, Europe and beyond. The company hopes to achieve ISO 14001 Environmental Management System registration for the wafer reclaim unit by mid-2000.—TGW
Convac meets growing sales in Asia with third factory
Convac Technologies (Hong Kong) is developing a third factory in Chengdu, China, to keep pace with European and Asian sales demands for its CD and DVD replication systems. According to executives, sales growth is putting pressure on the existing production capacity of its two current facilities located in Vaihingen, Germany, and Fremont, CA. The company, which specializes in the design and integration of manufacturing solutions for the optical disc markets, will use the Chengdu facility to help produce and release a new generation of CD-R replication systems due out this year.—TGW
Kling Lindquist completes FDA labs
Kling Lindquist, an architectural, engineering and interior design firm in Philadelphia, has completed a 150,000-sq-ft facility for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Located in Jefferson, AR, the recently dedicated facility houses the FDA's Arkansas Regional Laboratory for the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) and the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR). It consists of analytical laboratories for field-related regulatory sample testing and analysis, including pesticides, drug chemistry, food chemistry, microbiology, biotechnology, authentic synthesis and central mass spectroscopy.—TGW
Built in a day
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Staffers from Simplex Isolation Systems Inc. (Fontana, CA) complete the second step of the cleanroom assembly on the show floor at CleanRooms East 2000 in Baltimore in March.
Simplex demonstrated its “Airlock Cleanroom Enclosure System,” an 8-foot by 12-foot structure that consists of aluminum frame modules and soft vinyl inserts.
Clarification
In the April 2000 Product Comparator on Presaturated Wipers (p. 30), there was incorrect information in Berkshire Corporation's listing. The SatPax 1000 canisters are recommended for use in Class 100/1000 cleanrooms; SatPax 1000 pouches are recommended for use in Class 100; SatPax 1200 pouches are recommended for use in a Class 10 cleanroom; and SatPax 3000 pouches are recommended for use in Class 1/10 environments. The SatPax 1000 canisters and pouches are packaged in a controlled environment, while the SatPax 1200 and 3000 wipers are packaged in a cleanroom. Also, the SatPax 1000, 1200 and 3000 wipers are available in a 9% 2-propanol/91% DI water solution. For more information on Berkshire's products, visit www.berkshire.com.