28 January 2011

Steed buys Applied Technology Specialists Inc

Steed Technology Inc of Scotts Valley, CA, USA, which provides thermal processing equipment for the semiconductor, LED and solar Industries, has acquired Applied Technology Specialists Inc (ATSI) of Bixby, OK, which develops pollution control equipment and technology to render safe volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and toxic exhaust gases.

Both firms will share the Steed name. The manufacturing of all products will remain in Northern California, while R&D of new products and technologies will remain in Oklahoma. Sales channels will be expanded both domestically and internationally to accommodate existing and new customers, focusing on regions with new air-quality restrictions.

Steed says that the acquisition steps up its product offering through incorporation of the ATSI EcoGuard line of point-of-use (PoU) gas abatement/scrubber and pollution control equipment. Steed is currently working to combine these technologies to work in unison. Customers of both Steed and ATSI should soon be able to purchase diffusion/LPCVD (low-pressure chemical vapor deposition) process and abatement equipment as a totally integrated system with onboard environmental control features developed by ATSI. Customers of both firms should receive the same level of service and support previously offered by Steed and ATSI for all new products.

Steed says that, with new, increasingly strict, environmental regulations such as the ‘Greenhouse’ law (AB32), many firms in the semiconductor, LED, solar and other industries are closely examining ways to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their existing abatement systems. Environmental control will play a major roll with manufacturing companies in the years ahead, it adds. To help meet this need Steed will, in addition to offering products that help companies to meet such strict requirements, offer ‘Green’ consulting and solutions services to help companies reduce emissions of gases such as perfluorocarbons (PFCs), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), and carbon dioxide (CO2), to levels that comply with local and federal laws, while reducing consumption of utilities such as fuel and water. Steed reckons that the merger adds value to this consulting service through the addition of the ATSI solutions team, which has a combined 50 years of gas abatement and clean-air solutions experience in the semiconductor processing industry.

Existing abatement solutions aim to scrub then dispose of hazardous by-products created during the production of LCD, semiconductor and solar products. With increasing regulations, and the high cost associated with utilities such as power and water, the common wet scrubber and chemical adsorption methods used by such technologies have become inefficient, claims Steed. The firm’s EcoGuard products are designed to destroy and eliminate hazardous by-products, versus capturing the by-products for further, costly, hazardous waste disposal. Steed's abatement product line also offers a low-operating-cost solution for process and abatement savings through its ‘On-Demand’ Control Program. Using sensor-driven process signals, operators can control the type of abatement required for the particular gas and only use what is necessary to abate and emit clean air to the environment.

“Companies face steep and complex challenges when working with separate vendors and technologies while trying to piece together environmentally responsible solutions to the toxic and harmful exhaust created in their manufacturing process,” says Steed's president & CEO Gerry Catalano. “High-tech companies will face tougher standards in the future and will need advanced abatement equipment to be in compliance,” he adds.

“The technology we have developed for the EcoGuard product line provides our customers with extremely reliable and efficient exhaust gas treatment solutions that conform to regulatory limits,” claims chief technology officer Earl Vickery. “They do not a require a bypass line, because they are specifically designed to prevent by-product solids from building-up within the abatement system,” he adds. “Existing brands require a bypass and may still clog over time, regardless of preventive maintenance.”

Tags: Gas abatement

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