Edwards, a leading manufacturer of sophisticated vacuum products and abatement systems and a leading provider of related value-added services, today announced that it has reached a significant milestone-the company has sold more than 10,000 abatement systems since it entered the business nearly 20 years ago. In addition, Edwards placed #2 in VLSI Research’s “Top 10 Suppliers of Critical Subsystems 2011” report1 for the semiconductor and flat panel display industries.
“The growing concern about the environment and climate change has spurred increasing awareness of the need to abate a variety of potentially harmful industrial by-products,” said Steve Cottle, Edwards’ exhaust management systems product manager. “For example, in 2011, our systems were responsible for abating the equivalent of 8,500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide at our customer facilities, equal to 98 percent of the net carbon dioxide emitted annually by industrial processes in the U.K.”
According to John West, CEO, VLSI Research Europe, “2011 was a record year for suppliers of Critical Subsystems. Sales grew 9.3 percent to reach a value of $7.88Bn. The main driver for the industry was capital expenditures on semiconductor manufacturing equipment for 32nm and below technology nodes.”
The majority of the abatement systems sold has been from Edwards’ inward fired combustor product range, which includes its TPU and Atlas products. The proven performance and reliability of Edwards’ unique inward-fired combustor design have made these products the top-selling combustion abatement systems for the past ten years.
Geographically, the United States remains the company’s largest market for abatement systems. However, the Asia Pacific region is also a key market for Edwards, due to rapid growth of high technology manufacturing and increasing environmental regulations.
