- News
31 October 2011
GT customer Haotian opens sapphire manufacturing plant
GT Advanced Technologies Inc of Merrimack, NH, USA (a provider of polysilicon production technology as well as sapphire and silicon crystalline growth systems and materials for the solar, LED and other specialty markets) says that its sapphire equipment customer Haotian Optoelectronics Technology (HTOT) has celebrated the opening of its sapphire production facility (and its entrance into the sapphire material sector) at its new facility in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, China.
The city’s Vice Mayor hosted the celebration, which included attendance of provincial and local party officials as well as HTOT sapphire material customers, and GT’s president & CEO Tom Gutierrez, Cheryl Diuguid (VP & general manager of GT’s sapphire material and equipment business) and Jeff Ford (GT’s VP & general manager of Asia).
Picture: GT president & CEO Tom Gutierrez celebrates unveiling of the first boules produced in HTOT’s sapphire manufacturing facility.
GT announced the sale of its ASF (Advanced Sapphire Furnace) sapphire crystal growth furnaces to HTOT in April. In the 6 months since then, HTOT has built a production facility and is in the process of completing the installation of equipment and ramping to volume production. When the plant is fully operational it will be capable of producing 30,000,000 TIE (two-inch equivalents) of sapphire material annually.
“Over the coming months we will work closely with the HTOT team to ensure a smooth ramp to volume production in their new state-of-the-art facility, which incorporates our ASF crystal growth equipment,” says Gutierrez. “In their initial production runs, HTOT has successfully grown four high-quality boules, all of which were over 100kg,” he adds.
“GT has a proven track record of partnering with companies to accelerate their entry into new markets by giving them the tools and support they need to become key industry players,” continues Gutierrez. “Over the next few months we expect several of our other key sapphire customers in Asia to start producing sapphire, and we look forward to working with these customers to ensure their smooth entrance into the sapphire growth industry.”
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