Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Biffa Group has announced a strategic alliance with M+W Group’s UK team, who will act as the turnkey contractor for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of Biffa’s new waste management facility at the company’s Brookhurst Wood site, in West Sussex (UK). The new facility is to be built as part of a 25-year contract between Biffa and West Sussex County Council to treat the County’s residual municipal waste using the latest Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) technology.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The future of U.S. Semiconductor and Solar manufacturing is highly debated, but many believe it is not dying - only changing.
Approximately 286,000 manufacturing firms currently operate in the U.S. and produce 22 percent of global manufacturing output, the largest percentage of any country.
Needless to say, the fab action is in Asia. M+W has built some 70 percent of the 300-mm fabs in that region. But amid the outsourcing trends, coupled by the wild IC cycles, M+W has diversified over the years into data centers, energy, life sciences, and other sectors.
This year along, M+W has been on an acquisition spree as a mean to diversify.
M+W Process Automation GmbH acquired 70 percent of the shares in Teufel Software GmbH, a SAP systems house for medium-sized manufacturing companies.
M+W Americas purchased 100 percent of Global Automation Partners, which will expand its competencies for customers of FAD regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals, biotech, and specialty chemicals.
M+W acquired shares in Schmid Silicon Technology Holding GmbH to partner in worldwide activities for engineering and construction of polysilicon plants based on its monosilane technology.
M+W continues to invest in the U.S with M+W Americas recent purchase of 100 percent of NSTAR Global Services which specializes in providing contract service resources to the semiconductor and high-tech industries.
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Monday, July 26, 2010
Most people don’t give too much thought to the tiny components which form such an integral part of almost all modern communication devices, from PCs to mobile phones.
Mobile chips get almost no public recognition in a world which seems to care more about screen size, shiny aluminum casings and apps - yet without powerful application processors, our handsets and devices would be nothing more than bricks.
Making chips, however, is no easy task, nor is it a cheap one, resulting in many firms choosing to outsource their manufacturing to dedicated “fabs” to feed the almost insatiable modern appetite for smaller, faster processors.
In Singapore recently, RCR was privileged to be able to get a glimpse behind the chipmaking curtain at GlobalFoundries’ fab 7, where wafer upon wafer of chips are churned out daily from within the impressive maze of cleanrooms.
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Monday, July 26, 2010
Achieving sustainable manufacturing is a critical goal for leading technology companies driven by growing concerns about the environmental impact of their businesses and by increasingly stringent government regulations and reporting requirements. Product sustainability extends not only to their operations, but also to the products that they manufacture.
Applied Materials designs products with the environment in mind. Their goal is to make products at least 20% more energy efficient and environmentally friendly by 2010 and they’re making great progress.
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Friday, July 23, 2010
The semiconductor industry is beginning a multi-year recovery. From the SEMI Mid-Year 2010 Semiconductor Consensus Forecast, the semiconductor equipment forecast dropped from $42.77 billion in 2007 to $15.92 billion in 2009, only forecasted to increase to $32.50 billion in 2010 and grow modestly to $35.53 billion in 2011. So even though 2010 growth is phenomenal, it is important to keep it in the context of the dismal semiconductor industry numbers in 2009.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Gresham Fire & Emergency Services responded to a call about an ammonia leak around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 20, at On Semiconductor in Gresham, 23400 N.E. Glisan St.
“A contractor cut a very small ammonia vapor line,” said Mark Maunder, battalion chief with the Gresham fire department.
He described the line as no bigger than a quarter-inch.
Two workers exposed to the vapor were checked out on scene and then transported to Providence Hospital in Portland as a precaution.
The leak was isolated very quickly, Maunder said.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The new state-by-state employment numbers released on Tuesday have an optimistic glow.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia have larger workforces now than they did a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ten of those states enjoyed increases of more than 10,000 jobs.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The global engineering and construction company M+W Group (until 2009: M+W Zander) has won an order to plan and build a large photovoltaic power park in Central Italy. The plant to be delivered as a turn-key plant will have a maximum output of 14.5 megawatt (MWp) and is to be set up in the province of Macerata (region of Marche). It is anticipated to be connected to the national grid by the end of 2010.
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Monday, July 19, 2010
Brian C. Toohey took office today as president of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Toohey, 42, succeeds George Scalise, who has led the association since 1997. SIA is the voice of the U.S. semiconductor industry, America’s number-one export industry over the past five years.
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Saturday, July 17, 2010
Siemens is warning customers of a new and highly sophisticated virus that targets the computers used to manage large-scale industrial control systems used by manufacturing and utility companies.
Security experts believe the virus appears to be the kind of threat they have worried about for years — malicious software designed to infiltrate the systems used to run factories and parts of the critical infrastructure.
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