May 16, 2001 – Carlsbad, CA – DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials LLC, a 50/50 joint venture company of DuPont and Air Products and Chemicals Inc., is increasing manufacturing capacity for colloidal silica-based slurries at its subsidiary’s facility at Ruabon, Wales, to 40 million pounds per annum. The investment will enable the company to meet expected annual market growth of 40% over the next five years, the companies said.

The expansion is scheduled for completion by the end of 2001 and includes the construction of two new “white” building extensions for blending and packaging purposes and an additional production line for surface modified products.

Phase one of the colloidal silica expansion is already complete, along with new packaging operations, a surface modification line and blending operations. The plant quality control lab has also been expanded to include new, state-of-the-art analytical equipment for slurry characterization, according to the companies.

Colloidal silica-based slurries are used by semiconductor manufacturers for electronic precision polishing or planarization applications such as chemical mechanical planarization and silicon wafer polishing.