CSA Expands Asia Operations

CSA, a leading testing and certification organization, officially announced the opening of a new testing and certification laboratory as well as the expansion of its product evaluation and consulting centre in Shanghai, China.

"CSA is opening these new state-of-the-art, high-tech testing, certification and verification laboratories in China to better serve our growing Chinese clients," said Ash Sahi, President and CEO, CSA Group. "The timely opening of these new facilities is at the core of CSA's strategic global business plan to expand our localized service offerings. With an expanding manufacturing base and growing economy, one of CSA's key business strategies includes accelerating investments in LED, EEV, solar and photovoltaic and expanding its core services and businesses in the People's Republic of China."

Located in Qilai Industry City, the Shanghai laboratory has an area of 2,600 m² (27,976 sq. ft.) and is equipped with cutting edge testing facilities. Product testing categories include: LED lighting products, electric heating appliances, motor and motor-operated appliances, tools and gardening implements, welding machines, IT components and equipment and power devices. The lab will conduct testing against Canadian, U.S. and other international standards.

Additionally, a newly expanded state-of-the-art consumer Product Evaluation and Consulting Centre offers services encompassing the entire life cycle of a product - from design through pre-purchase testing, factory evaluation, pre-shipment inspection and product comparison testing. This centre offers expertise in a wide range of product categories, including gas appliances, plumbing products, lawn and garden products, household appliances and electrical devices amongst others. To meet customers' increasing demand, this Centre has been expanded to provide Energy Star testing and customized performance evaluations for CFLs, LEDs and other high efficiency lighting products.

Having published more than 75 standards covering renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and earth energy systems, CSA can offer new services to Chinese customers to help them meet global and Chinese 'green' trends. CSA also offers consumer product evaluation testing services to help clients throughout Asia, and globally, meet environmental obligations and challenges by providing leading-edge product performance testing and evaluation services for consumer products.

Materion Expands with Cleanroom

Materion Microelectronics & Services, a unit of Materion Corporation, expanded its Wheatfield, NY facility, adding 50 percent more space with a fully automated robotic twin wire arc spray, increased precious metal refining capacity, new cleaning processes, and a Class 10,000-certified cleanroom. The site provides precision parts cleaning and surface treatment of physical vapor deposition (PVD) shield kits.

The NY facility serves manufacturers of LEDs, wireless products and other semiconductors, photovoltaics, medical consumables, and other products.

The fully automated robotic twin wire arc spray applies an under-layer surface coating to parts after they have been cleaned and the precious metals recovered. The coating enhances surface roughness, increasing adhesion in the vacuum chamber, so that more material is deposited and fewer random particles end up on the product. This increases the process lifetime of shielding used in particulate-sensitive processes. Each part is individually programmed into the system for precise, consistent coating. After the part has been used and returned to Materion, the under-layer coating can be quickly and easily removed for cleaning.

After cleaning, all parts pass through various inspections and testing for dimensional tolerances and complete cleanliness. Parts are returned to PVD users ready to be installed into thin film chambers for deposition.

Materion also has precision parts cleaning facilities in Ireland and the Czech Republic, and is always considering additional locations and services. Materion is a vertically integrated global provider of thin film deposition materials, precision parts cleaning services, and precious metal recovery and refining. Materion Corporation, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, supplies highly engineered advanced enabling materials to global markets. Products include precious and non-precious specialty metals, inorganic chemicals and powders, specialty coatings, specialty engineered beryllium alloys, beryllium and beryllium composites, and engineered clad and plated metal systems.

Printed Circuits, Inc. (PCI) Expands Capacity

Printed Circuits, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN) has expanded their manufacturing facility. Through the acquisition of new equipment, PCI has increased inner layer capacity and improved manufacturing yields resulting in a cost reduction on their rigid flex products, and the additional service offering of higher volume production to their customers.

Among the new capital equipment investments undertaken, Printed Circuits, Inc. (PCI) has installed and qualified new conveyorized wet processing equipment from Chemcut, USA, including a chemical clean line, cupric chloride etcher, and resist stripper. Each line is equipped with Chemcut's thin material transport system, which is ideal for the thin dielectrics that are common in flex and rigid flex designs. The added capacity and equipment has positioned PCI's cost structure for higher volume rigid flex manufacturing, while improving repeatability, manufacturing yield, and process capability on trace technology below 75μ/75μ.

"In the last 12-18 months, we have been taking larger orders and higher volume, lower cost rigid flex" said Ken Tannehill, President and CEO of Printed Circuits. "This new equipment gives us the capacity to handle the higher volume projects at a lower cost, and a much higher yield. We have been pleased to see the improved yields since qualifying the process lines for production earlier this year."

Valspar Opens New R&D Center in China

The Valspar Corp. announced the opening of its new research and development center in Shunde, China, a move the company said will support the company’s continued growth in Asia Pacific and R&D activities worldwide.

A grand-opening ceremony was attended by more than 400 guests, including customers, suppliers and government officials. The Applied Science and Technology Center will employ over 200 scientists, and was built with “the highest standards in safety and energy efficiency,” the company said.

“This facility enables us to bring a higher level of value to our relationships in the Asia-Pacific region by allowing us to be closer to our customers,” said Gary Hendrickson, Valspar president and CEO. “The research and development center will give our customers a unique competitive advantage. Valspar’s strategy is to continue to invest in our people and our businesses in China.”

Valspar said its 2011 global sales totaled $4 billion, including sales in Asia Pacific of $1 billion. Nearly half of the sales in the Asia-Pacific region are in China, where Valspar currently operates five manufacturing facilities.

The company produces coatings for various end-use markets in China, including products for the consumer market, food and beverage packaging, shipping containers, furniture, building products, and agricultural and construction equipment.

Compeq to Establish PCB Factory in Chongquing, China

The board of directors of Compeq Co., Ltd. recently approved a plan to invest US$45 million to open a printed circuit board (PCB) factory in Chongquing, mainland China. Volume production is planned to start in 2013.

Compeq is among Taiwan's top three PCB makers of high density interconnection (HDI) boards for mobile phones. The company now maintains production facilities in Taiwan, Guangdong and Jiangsu. Opening production lines in the inland city of Chongquing indicates that labor costs in coastal provinces of mainland China have surged to unacceptable scales for Taiwanese manufacturers.

Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA), a trade body representing Taiwan's PCB makers, pointed out that the mainland now is the world's No.1 PCB producer in terms of revenue mostly thanks to Taiwanese operations there. The association pointed out that in 2012 Taiwanese manufacturers will remain major contributor to revenue of the mainland's industry

Precision Coating Opens Medical Device Coatings Facility

Precision Coating, one of the largest plastics coating applicators in the world and a subsidiary of Katahdin Industries Inc., announced it has opened a new dedicated medical device coatings facility at 63 Sprague Street in Boston. The 7,500 square-foot manufacturing plant is the result of a $1 million investment by the company to provide added capacity for medical device companies with high commercial volumes.

Precision Coating serves global health care and medical device companies around the world coating medical devices such as guide wires, core wires, hypotubes and forming mandrels. In addition to its proprietary innovative low friction polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), the company also offers other PTFE systems including zero-perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and chromic acid free coatings. The company has a flexible prototype location in Dedham, Mass., however, it needed space to accommodate higher volumes once products went into commercial development.

"Our investment in this new state-of-the-art facility is indicative of our commitment to growing with our customers' volumes without compromising service," said Robert A. DeAngelis, President, Precision Coating. "This facility, which is designed for medical device coatings only, offers a controlled environment that better manages air quality and particle count -- key differentiators that raise the bar on quality and performance in this industry."

Seagate Thailand to Expand Its Operations in Thailand

Seagate Technology (Thailand) Limited, the world leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions, announced an investment of about 1 billion baht (US$30 million) with the opening of a new building for read-write head manufacturing at its Korat facility.

The 1 billion baht project includes the construction of the new building and equipment. This new building is more than 29,800 sq.m (320,648 sq. ft.) and is scheduled to be in operation in February 2012. The new facility will potentially create several thousand new jobs when the plant is fully operational and running at maximum production capacity.

Mr. Jeffrey D. Nygaard, vice president and country manager, Penang & Thailand Operations, Seagate Technology (Thailand) Limited said, “Seagate’s continued capital investment and transfer of new, leading-edge technologies and products into Thailand is a demonstration of our commitment to maintain a strategic presence here. We will work closely with the government and the local community to bolster economic growth for the country.

“With this new investment, we will be able to increase current read-write head production up to 40% running at maximum capacity. It will serve the increasing world market demand for hard disk drive storage,” Nygaard said.

The company’s component and disk drive factories in Thailand have not been directly affected by the flood; however, the company’s ability to manufacture hard disk drives has been impacted due to external component supply constraints as first disclosed on October 12, 2011.

The company continues to believe that, due to the industry impacts caused by the extensive flooding in Thailand, hard disk drive supply will be significantly constrained for several quarters. For the December 2011 quarter, the company believes the industry will ship between 110-120 million units. The company believes the industry’s ability to manufacture and ship hard disk drives will gradually improve throughout calendar 2012.

Seagate Korat was established in 1996 to manufacture three major hard drive components—slider, head assembly and head gimbal assembly—as well as final drive assembly. Based on Seagate’s financial report ended on June 2011, the cumulative investment in Seagate’s Korat and Teparuk operations is 38 billion baht. The plants in both Teparuk and Korat employ more than 16,000 employees, including more than 700 engineers.

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