OTHER ELECTRONICS & NANOTECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRY UPDATE
March 2017
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
NewAge
Industries Cleanroom Expansion, Southampton, Pa.
Kateeva
Expands Silicon Valley Headquarters
Kateeva’s
YIELDjet FLEX System for OLED TFE Mass Production
Israeli
Company Selects St. Louis for U.S. Headquarters
Cost:
$9.5 million
Size:
40,000 sq. ft.
Project team:
AES Clean Technology Inc. (architect,
designer and engineer)
Preparations at NewAge Industries are underway to expand
and renovate 40,000 square feet of space for more cleanroom suites, inspection
areas and warehousing. The company is using an existing area at its headquarters
and manufacturing facility located just north of Philadelphia.
The need to expand arose primarily from the success of
NewAge’s AdvantaPure product line. AdvantaPure’s tubing, hose and molded
components are manufactured for high purity, Single-Use biopharm and
pharmaceutical applications such as vaccine production and cell culture media
transfer for harvest, filtration, fermentation, sampling and storage.
The area within NewAge’s building was previously rented to
other businesses for several years—it even housed the local fire department,
free of charge, while the firehouse was undergoing renovation—and more recently
had been used for NewAge’s inventory overflow.
The space will consist of 20,000 sq. ft. of five ISO Class
7 cleanrooms and an equal amount of area for warehousing. Demolition of existing
structures within the expanse was completed last fall, and then followed by
painting, utility work and other preparations.
NewAge expects to be able to move equipment from its
existing cleanroom manufacturing areas to the newly renovated space during the
second quarter of 2017.
Because the company has multiple tubing extruders and
presses for molded components, the move-in will occur in phases, with one piece
of equipment being shutdown, moved, validated and restarted at a time. There
will be no production stoppages or shortage of products due to the plant
expansion.
This is not the first time NewAge’s building has undergone
major changes. In recent years the company invested in new lighting, new
windows, floor resurfacing, new motors for its manufacturing equipment and air
conditioning units, a new roof and a rooftop solar panel array consisting of
over 4,000 panels. These panels currently produce half of the company’s
electricity needs.
Completion date: April 28, 2017
Kateeva announced that it is expanding its Silicon Valley
headquarters. The company has leased an adjacent building at its Newark campus,
adding 75,000 sq. ft. that is zoned for manufacturing and business operations.
This brings Kateeva’s total campus footprint to 150,000 sq. ft. Kateeva moved to
its current location in early 2015 to facilitate production ramp-up of its
YIELDjet inkjet printing manufacturing equipment for the global flat panel
display industry. Since then, headcount has nearly tripled to 330 people, and
orders for YIELDjet systems have soared. With the new building, Kateeva’s
doubles its manufacturing footprint, providing ample space to accelerate
production.
Leading flat panel display manufacturers use Kateeva’s
precision deposition equipment for cost-effective mass production of Organic
Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays. OLED technology is behind some of today’s
most popular smartphones and tablets. Already, OLED screens curve around edges
to enable unique form factors. Soon, when tablets, notebooks and smartphones can
bend, roll and even fold without breaking, it will be thanks to OLED technology.
OLED technology enables the production of displays on plastic (entirely free of
glass), making them flexible and paper-thin.
Kateeva’s first product, the YIELDjet FLEX system, enabled
a rapid transition from glass encapsulation to Thin Film Encapsulation (TFE) in
new OLED production lines. The “freedom from glass” technology leap was the
gateway to flexible displays. Each Kateeva inkjet printer is highly customized
and built to extremely exacting specifications. Measuring approximately 2,000
sq. ft., the tool contains thousands of precision parts, and is differentiated
by myriad innovations that are protected by 200 issued and pending patents. With
the system, customers can achieve dramatically higher TFE yields and lower
mass-production costs than what was previously possible with other deposition
techniques. On an OLED mass-production line, Kateeva printers work in concert
with tools from other leading equipment companies to process the panels.
Kateeva’s tools are designed and engineered in Newark, so
the expansion will support the company’s growing R&D team. In addition, since
Kateeva manufactures a majority of its products and components in Newark, the
expansion will also support a large increase in its U.S. manufacturing capacity.
Kateeva’s President and Co-founder, Dr. Conor Madigan
noted: “Kateeva’s manufacturing strategy utilizes a balance of production in
Asia, as well as the U.S. This dual-region strategy generates optimum
efficiencies and will continue as we grow. For now, our most complex and
customized products will be built at our Newark facility where we can leverage
our adjacent manufacturing and engineering teams to maintain highest quality
while also satisfying our customers’ aggressive delivery timelines. This is far
more difficult to achieve when our manufacturing and engineering teams are
separated and remote. Building these products in the U.S. also helps us
safeguard the intellectual property that differentiates our technology
solution.”
Madigan listed other advantages of Kateeva’s newly expanded
Newark HQ: “By obtaining an adjacent building we can maintain the operating
efficiencies of a single site,” he said. “Also, in Newark we’re next door to
several international airports, which is imperative for a manufacturer of
capital equipment bound for production fabs in Asia. Finally, our location
situates us ideally to draw talent from all regions in and around Silicon
Valley.”
Panasonic's new factory will be built on a 32,280 sq. ft.
(3,000 sq. m.) area adjacent to the existing factory to expand the wiring
devices and circuit breakers production.
Panasonic will expand the wiring devices and circuit
breakers factory of Panasonic Eco Solutions Vietnam, located in Binh Duong
province. An additional factory building will be constructed adjacent to the
existing factory, according to the company.
The Vietnam plant launched full-scale production in
November 2014 as a new manufacturing site for wiring devices and circuit
breakers in Southeast Asia, following the ones in Thailand and Indonesia. The
new factory will be built on a 32,280 sq. ft. (3,000 sq. m.) area adjacent to
the existing factory to substantially expand the production capacity of wiring
devices and circuit breakers.
Currently, the existing factory produces approximately 53
million wiring devices and about 13 million circuit breakers annually. With an
additional factory, the plant aims to double its production capacity in FY2020.
There are also plans to explore the purchase of an area of approximately 193,680
sq. ft. (18,000 sq. m) adjacent to the current factory premises to add to the
factory in the future in order to address any further increase in demand.
With the current addition of a factory and a further
expansion plan, the plant aims to supply wiring devices and circuit breakers
produced in the Vietnamese plant to local markets and other Southeast Asian
countries, said Panasonic.
The company’s growth supports its customers increasing
demands and the industry’s complex materials.
Univertical offers its high-purity copper and nickel
chemicals for the plating industry. These products benefit from the completion
of the company’s 1,600 sq. ft. in-house laboratory. The multi-level cleanroom
laboratory includes two advanced analytical instruments, including an ICP-Mass
Spectrometry instrument that enables the company to analyze raw materials and
finished products to very-low-ppb impurity levels. The company’s growth supports
its customers increasing demands and the industry’s complex materials.
Business development group GlobalSTL recruits Atomation to
St. Louis to work with Ameren and other local corporations
GlobalSTL, a BioSTL initiative to attract companies that
create high-growth economic activity for St. Louis, has recruited Israeli tech
company Atomation to St. Louis where the company will work on a special pilot
project for Ameren. Atomation is the fifth Israeli company recruited by
GlobalSTL to locate its U.S. headquarters in St. Louis.
"We are delighted to welcome Atomation to St. Louis," said
Donn Rubin, president & CEO of BioSTL. "By leveraging St. Louis' strengths, we
are able to recruit companies like Atomation that enrich our community with
cutting-edge technology and talent, boosting St. Louis' standing as a global
center of innovation."
GlobalSTL worked closely with Ameren to recruit Atomation
to St. Louis. Atomation will develop a pilot program for Ameren that connects
utility poles to the internet by installing small, low-cost sensor packs on
dozens of Ameren's utility poles. The packs will help Ameren remotely monitor
the integrity and health of the poles, which will allow the company to pinpoint
issues in real time and respond more quickly and efficiently to any problems or
customer concerns. The program is being conducted at Ameren Illinois' Technology
Applications Center (TAC) in Champaign, Illinois, a testing facility dedicated
to innovation and smart-grid improvement.
"Developing innovative technologies to deliver safe,
reliable and affordable energy to our customers is a top priority for Ameren and
is consistent with our mission to power the quality of life," said Warner
Baxter, chairman and CEO of Ameren Corporation and board chair of the St. Louis
Regional Chamber. "We are proud to support regional economic development, we
value our partnership with GlobalSTL, and we look forward to working closely
with Atomation on this important pilot program."
Atomation CEO Guy Weitzman will come to St. Louis to
establish the company's U.S. headquarters near its growing customer base. Also,
he has recruited local talent to further scale the company's presence, creating
approximately 20 new jobs.
"Compared to other U.S. regions, St. Louis has a hunger for
innovation and an authentic will to implement new, practical technologies and
processes," said Weitzman. "Thanks to GlobalSTL's relationships and their
business development expertise, we've been connected to St. Louis clients in the
agriculture, industrial automation and energy sectors with crucial technology
needs – and where there are real needs, there is business potential."
The decision by Atomation reinforces St. Louis as a global
innovation center and a destination for startups.
"My number one priority is bringing quality jobs to
Missouri families. Atomation's decision to locate its U.S. headquarters in
Missouri shows what tremendous economic growth opportunities we have," said
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. "I'm proud to welcome Atomation to Missouri, and
I'm glad that they share our mission to create jobs and grow our state."
Atomation's St. Louis-based clients include Ameren,
Dynaquip, and Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, among others.
McIlvaine Company
Northfield, IL 60093-2743
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E-mail:
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