Day & Zimmerman establishes biopharm technology division
Day & Zimmerman International Inc. (Philadelphia) has formed the Bio-Pharm Technologies Division to support the company’s efforts in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. The new division offers a range of integrated support services, including design, engineering, construction, regulatory compliance, asset
Day & Zimmerman establishes biopharm technology division
Day & Zimmerman International Inc. (Philadelphia) has formed the Bio-Pharm Technologies Division to support the company’s efforts in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. The new division offers a range of integrated support services, including design, engineering, construction, regulatory compliance, asset optimization and staff augmentation. —LB
North Safety Products acquires Safety4
North Safety Products (Cranston, RI) has acquired Safety4 Inc., a Lenexa, KS, manufacturer of specialty chemical-resistant gloves, aprons, booties and sleeves. The acquisition gives North access to a specialized, patented technology that offers product protection against chemical permeation.—LB
Cypress launches third Minnesota fab
Cypress Semiconductor (San Jose, CA) has brought Fab 4C online to help meet the growing demands of the company’s customers in the Internet, wide-area networking and wireless communications markets. Fab 4C will be ramped to full capacity by late 2001, effectively doubling the total capacity of the Minnesota operation, according to the company.
The new wafer fabrication facility is located adjacent to Cypress’ Fab 4A and Fab 4B, with all three fabs integrated as a single cleanroom.—LB
Nippon Foundry postpones 300-mm fab to increase 200-mm wafer production
Just weeks after announcing its plans to construct a 300-mm plant, Nippon Foundry,
of Tateyama City, Chiba Prefecture, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Taiwan’s UMC, said it has decided to construct a 200-mm fab instead. Completion of the 300-mm plant will be postponed to 2003; construction is slated to begin in 2002. Nippon will start construction of the
200-mm wafer processing line soon. The new facility will have a production capacity of
6,000 to 7,000 wafers per month and will be located adjacent to the existing plant. The
facility is scheduled to be operational in the
third quarter of 2002. In the new plant,
0.18-micron devices will be manufactured
for digital consumer electronics-related SOCs.
—WaferNews Staff Reports
Ronningen-Petter acquires Groupe Aoustin
Ronningen-Petter (Kalamazoo, MI), a manufacturer of liquid filtration equipment for the
industrial processing market, has acquired Groupe Aoustin of Nanterre, France. Groupe Aoustin manufactures high-value, turnkey liquid filtration systems and specialty, high-viscosity mixer-extruders under the Aoustin, Filtres Philippe, Vernay, UCEGO and Guittard brands.
Group Aoustin products include vacuum belt, rotary drum, vacuum table and vacuum disc filters; bag, cartridge, leaf and backwash type pressure filters; and sigma or twin-blade mixers-extruders. The company’s market focus has been in bulk chemicals, mining, pharmaceuticals, and food and beverage arenas.—LB
The Fairchild Corp. expands facilities
The Fairchild Corp. (Dulles, VA) announced that M&M Machine & Tool Co. would be renamed Fairchild Aerostructures Company and will open an additional manufacturing facility that will
significantly expand the capacity of its production and assembly operations. The 58,000-square-foot facility will push Fairchild Aerostructures’ total manufacturing space to 116,000 square feet. “In addition to providing more room for additional manufacturing equipment, the extra space allows Fairchild Aerostructures to expand its cleanroom assembly, production, kitting and inspection capabilities,” says Eric Steiner, president of The Fairchild Corp. He adds that Fairchild Aerostructures’ work on the Boeing C-17 cargo plane, which includes performing large stretch forming operations and precision machining for wing components, will be performed in the new facility.—LB
MedSource moves to new facility
MedSource Technologies Inc., a supplier of
precision metal and plastic components,
subassemblies and completed products to
medical device and equipment manufacturers, has moved from Moultonboro, NH, to a new facility in nearby Laconia.
The new 31,000-square-foot facility features ISO Class 7 (Class 10,000) and ISO Class 8 (Class 100,000) cleanrooms as well as manufacturing space with milling, turning and other capabilities. The Laconia site is ISO 9001, EN 46001 certified, and it complies with FDA Quality System
Regulation (QSRs) 21 CFR 820.
The new MedSource facility specializes in product design, precision machining and device assembly of minimally invasive surgical instruments. “The new facility provides us twice the amount of manufacturing space and a skilled labor pool that will allow us to grow with our customers,” said Dave Porter, vice president and general manager of the Laconia facility.—MAD
DuPont contracts Servicor for cleanroom
Servicor Inc. is making finishing touches on
a $1.2 million dollar cleanroom for DuPont (Wilmington, DE).
The cleanroom will be used to develop advanced superconductivity technology. According to Servicor, DuPont is striving to accelerate conductive factors in components for the Department of Defense.
The cleanroom comprises 15 areas. All areas are designated as ISO Class 6 (Class 1000) boutique fab areas. Will Stambaugh, regional sales manager for Servicor, says the cleanroom is equipped with Servicor’s structural steel system.
It also includes a ceiling grid that features custom process piping access panels and
yellow lighting. Stambaugh adds that Servicor’s “Ultra” envelope system supports Dupont’s bulkhead-mounted process equipment and built-in Servicor stainless steel laminar air-flow benches. A Thallium room was also designed to have low wall exhaust HEPA filtration in the event that an unexpected excursion would have to be contained.
Although the client was not disclosed, Servicor has also completed a clinical trials facility that meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulations for human drug production.
The facility, located in Northern California, consists of two suites with dedicated airlock/gown-up entry rooms, and two completely separate and isolated HVAC systems—providing independent control of each suite with no cross-contamination.
According to Servicor, the ISO Class 7 (Class 10,000) facility was delivered under very tight time constraints. The cleanroom suites were retrofitted into an existing light industrial building space that had formerly housed commercial businesses.
The facility features Servicor’s Ultra Style seismically rated framing system, load-bearing Unigrid ceilings, baked-on powder coated finishes and rounded corner detailing. Cleanroom Consulting (Syracuse, NY) provided the conceptual design package for the project and ICOM Mechanical (San Jose, CA) provided the neutral plenum design HVAC system, which delivers pressure, temperature and humidity control for Servicor cleanroom suites. —MAD
Pentagon to acquire Chemetal
Pentagon Technologies, Inc. plans to acquire Chemetal, Inc. (Hayward, CA), a provider of semiconductor and microelectronics fabrication equipment, parts, cleaning and reconditioning services.
This acquisition falls in line with Pentagon’s business strategy of offering yield enhancement and defect reduction solutions as “third party” outsourced services provided by the company.
Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by both boards of directors, Pentagon will purchase all of the assets, and certain liabilities, of Chemetal in a cash and equity transaction.
Founded in 1983, Chemetal offers advanced surface cleaning and reconditioning of ultra high vacuum equipment parts and assemblies. It also offers ISO 9001-based logistics management and inventory control systems. Employees of Chemetal will remain with Pentagon. The Hayward facility of Chemetal will continue its operations under Pentagon as part of the Semiconductor Parts Group.
“This acquisition augments the purchase of Support Systems Inc. and Thermal Coatings Inc. completed last year. Both of those companies were recognized regional leaders in parts management. Chemetal is a key acquisition, making Pentagon the leading, and largest, vertical service provider in this segment of the industry,” says Frank McBride, Pentagon’s president and chief executive.
David Rossiter, former president and chief executive of Chemetal, will assume the newly created position of Vice President of Pentagon’s Semiconductor Parts Group.
“I am pleased that Chemetal will become part of Pentagon. The company has made very timely acquisitions during the last 18 months, aggregating several leading companies into a unique outsource operation serving select sectors of the wafer fabrication support and maintenance marketplace,” Rossiter adds.—MAD
eFiltration launches electronic hub
eFiltration Inc. (Chicago) launched what it calls the first electronic hub for the $67-billion global filtration industry. The company aggregates
buyers and sellers online and provides them with an array of products, support services and information from companies such as Filtration Group Inc. and Parker Hannifin Corp.’s Process Filtration Division.—LB
Biopool acquires Xtrana
Biopool International, a supplier of human diagnostic tests based in Ventura, CA, has completed the acquisition of Xtrana Inc. (Denver), a developer of nucleic acid-based technologies.
Before the final acquisition stages, Xtrana received a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create a test to detect Salmonella contamination in food.
News of the funding in late June came on the heels of Xtrana receiving a U.S. patent for the test technology, number 5,989,813, “Detection
of Amplified Nucleic Acid Sequences Using Bifunctional Haptenization and Dyed Microparticles.”
Since incorporation, Xtrana has received about $3.1 million in funding from the federal government and $1.2 million from the private equity sales.—MAD
Food illness Web sites launched
Marler Clark, the Seattle, WA-based law firm known nationwide for its successful representation of persons injured in food-borne illness outbreaks, has launched its informational food-borne illness Web sites.
The sites are designed to provide quick and useful information for concerned consumers, and are available as a resource for the media as well.
Each site deals specifically with one of the major food-borne diseases. The sites also provide specific information about the referenced bacteria or virus, and list the most recent major
outbreaks related to each “bug.”
The sites are:
- www.about-ecoli.com
- www.about-hepatitis.com
- www.about-listeria.com
- www.about-salmonella.com
- www.about-shigella.com
Marler represented Brianne Kiner in her $15.6-million settlement with Jack in the Box. He also secured compensation totaling $30 million for other victims from the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak.
In May 1998, the law firm settled the Odwalla Juice E. coli outbreak for the five families whose children were severely injured after consuming Odwalla apple juice. Marler Clark has litigated on behalf of children against KFC, McDonalds, Hardees, Subway, Carl’s Jr., Sizzler and Costco. Today, Marler Clark is lead counsel in actions stemming from several E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella and Hepatitis outbreaks in Washington, California, Ohio, Missouri and Arizona. The firm is presently representing children in E. coli outbreaks stemming from contaminated beef served in a school lunch and from a swimming pool in Atlanta.—MAD
Spirent launches sensing solutions group
Spirent plc has launched Spirent Sensing Solutions, a global business that brings together the company’s activities in temperature, humidity, moisture, pressure and gas sensing applications. The business serves the automotive, biomedical, pharmaceutical, HVAC, process, appliance and telecommunications industries. The new company combines the expertise of Thermometrics Global Business, the General Eastern Group of companies, Kay Instruments and other recently acquired pressure and gas sensing capabilities. —LB
BOC Edwards books dry pump order with Dallas Semiconductor
BOC Edwards (Wilmington, MA) has booked a large order for dry pumps for semiconductor etch equipment from Dallas Semiconductor. The order is part of a continuing fab expansion, which includes the addition of several new dry plasma etchers, a process tool that selectively removes film from the wafer surface. Two BOC Edwards Model IPX100 point-of-use dry pumps will be used for each etcher and will be mounted in the sub-floor, thereby decreasing the footprint of support equipment needed to run the etchers.
Typically, four to five pumps are needed to support each etcher. The BOC Edwards pumps can be mounted adjacent to the process tool or under the floor tiles.—LB
Barnebey Sutcliffe develops product to treat contaminated water
Waterlink/Barnebey Sutcliffe (Columbus, OH) has introduced a catalytic activated carbon made from coconut shell specifically for decomposing monochloramine to nitrogen in water. According to the company, the MCAT specialty activated carbon is proven to be highly effective for point-of-use and point-of-entry water treatment applications. It is intended for use in ultra-pure water applications, including the manufacture of semiconductors; medical dialysis; and beverage applications.
Reportedly, monochloramine contamination results from the use of chlorine in water disinfection. It can cause odor or unpleasant taste in drinking water and can interfere with hemodialysis and manufacturing processes that require ultra-pure water.—LB
Lucent and Chartered Semiconductor enter $700-million R&D agreement
Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing announced and agreement to invest $700 million over the next five years to jointly develop manufacturing technologies for future generations of integrated circuits targeted at high-growth communications markets.
As part of the joint-development activities, the companies will staff a new Bell Labs research and development team on Chartered’s Woodlands campus in Singapore. These scientists and engineers will work with Bell Labs teams in Murry Hill, NJ, and Orlando, FL, as well as with Chartered’s technology development organization, to create a global 600-person R&D team focused on innovations in manufacturing technology.—LB