ATMI(R) Completes Expansion of Bloomington, Minnesota Manufacturing Facility
Effort Launches North American Site That Doubles Production Capacity for Single-Use Integrity(TM) Bioprocess Products
DANBURY, Conn., Jul 28, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX News Network) -- ATMI, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATMI) announced yesterday the completion of a two-year, multi-million dollar expansion project for its Bloomington, Minnesota manufacturing facility. With this achievement, the company establishes its North American hub for the production, marketing, and development of its Integrity(TM) single-use technologies for biopharmaceutical and other life science applications.
Expansion of the Bloomington site, which will continue to host ATMI's manufacturing operations for high-purity liners and specialty chemical dispense systems for the semiconductor and flat panel display industries, was unveiled yesterday at an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. The added capabilities double the company's worldwide capacity for the fabrication of ATMI(R) LifeSciences' Integrity(TM) product line of 2-D and 3-D transfer, storage, mixing, and bioreactor vessels, while adding supply chain contingency through a dual-manufacturing capability shared with the existing bioprocess manufacturing plant in Hoegaarden, Belgium. The ribbon-cutting ceremony, which featured a VIP tour of the new facilities, was attended by Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead, and ATMI customers, partners, and employees.
New jobs will be created, representing a variety of roles ranging from assembly and testing to laboratory supervision, manufacturing engineering, and product engineering. Additional space remains that would double the production capacity to meet increasing demand.
"We have developed this world-class facility in direct response to the growing needs of our North American customers for additional single-use bioprocess vessel manufacturing capacity. Creating a copy-exact of our Belgian facility for change management and supply chain security reasons also helped us to quickly replicate cGMP procedures," commented Doug Neugold, ATMI Chief Executive Officer and President. "With advanced vessel design, 100% integrity testing, and extensive quality controls, we continue to apply our experience in semiconductor manufacturing to our life science business."
Featuring a 2,500 sq. ft. Class 1000 cleanroom with Class 100 work areas, the additions also include a new demonstration and applications laboratory and a separate product development laboratory. In addition, the Bloomington expansion is ISO 9001 certified and cGMP compliant, and it extends operating procedures and quality testing practices based on those in place at the Hoegaarden facility. The Bloomington production area houses state-of-the-art custom-film welding equipment for vessel chamber production and the attachment of fitments and tubing. There is dedicated space to perform 100% integrity testing of each fully assembled vessel, including bio burden, weld strength, and particle contamination monitoring.
"Increasing our manufacturing footprint addresses the rapidly increasing demands of the biopharmaceutical marketplace for single-use vessels applications in the field of storage, mixing, and bioreactors," said Mario Philips, Senior Vice President and General Manager ATMI LifeSciences. "It is also part of our global strategic supply program to meet the highest standards with respect to quality, delivery, and contingency, as our customers move our single-use technologies into their HVM cGMP environments."
ATMI is a leading provider of ultra-clean film products and single-use systems and packaging for both the life science and semiconductor/display industries. ATMI LifeSciences is known for innovative products including its PadReactor(TM) and Nucleo(R) bioreactors, its broad range of single-use mixing systems, and its media storage and transfer vessels--all of which are manufactured using the same Integrity TK8 film to minimize validation and integration time and costs. For further information log onto www.atmi.com
About ATMI
ATMI, Inc. provides specialty semiconductor materials, leading-edge materials development science, and high-purity materials handling and delivery solutions designed to increase process efficiencies for the worldwide semiconductor, flat panel, and life sciences industries. For more information, please visit http://www.atmi.com.
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About ATMI LifeSciences
ATMI LifeSciences is a leader in single-use mixing, storage, and bioreactor technology, fluoropolymer-based products, and custom-engineered, flexible packaging solutions. The business's fundamental knowledge of polymers, specially selected resins, and its clean room manufacturing experience combine to help drive optimum performance in critical disposable process operations. For more information, please visit www.atmi-lifesciences.com.