Surface World March 2019 SW_March_2019_LR | Page 48

PRE-TREATMENT, SURFACE PREPARATION, DEGREASING & CLEANING IPA Vapour Dryer – Refurbishment and Upgrade Programme Maintains the validated process A world-renowned manufacturer within the semi-conductor industry is using fi ve IPA vapour dryers in their wet-bench processes. These vapour dryers are all in excess of 20 years old and contain numerous obsolete parts which have caused increasing down-time and bottlenecks in production for the manufacturer. The original manufacturer of the vapour dryers is no longer trading, and this had left the semi-conductor company with the potential for a lengthy interruption in production should a breakdown of a vapour dryer occur. Such a break in manufacturing of semi-conductors has the potential to cost many hundreds of thousands of US Dollars in lost production. As the process they run during the manufacture is validated not only in terms of the processes run but also the equipment used, they approached Layton Technologies to discuss the possibility of having a roll-out programme to refurbish the five systems. Layton dismantled each system in turn and replaced all obsolete components with modern, up to date parts. This included the out of date plc and HMI to make it compatible with modern programmes and control systems. The original, exceptionally delicate, quartz tanks and quartz cooling coils, heating pads, operating procedures and the system carcase were all reused in the refurbished system to maintain the validation features necessary to allow the Dryers to be re-introduced into the wet-benches without lengthy and costly re-validation being required. 46 As each system was refurbished it was shipped back out to the customer, re- installed in the wet-bench. Once the wet-bench was running again the next dryer was removed from the line and sent to Layton for the same refurbishment to be done. Over a period of eight months all five systems were fully overhauled and re-installed at the customer’s facility with minimum interruption to their manufacturing schedule. The customer was so impressed with the standard of work that they have subsequently MARCH 2019 ordered a new IPA Vapour Dryer which will shortly undergo their extremely stringent validation processes to allow them to purchase further new IPA Vapour Dryers in order to future proof their production. For more information contact Layton Technologies. Telephone: [phone] Email: [email protected] Visit: www.laytontechnologies.com twitter: @surfaceworldmag