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Showa Denko to expand high-purity boron trichloride plant

TOKYO – Showa Denko has decided to increase its capacity to produce high-purity boron trichloride (BCl3), which is a kind of specialty gas used in the manufacture of electronic materials, to 1.5 times of the previous level. High-purity BCl3 is a specialty gas mainly used for fine-etching of aluminum circuits in the manufacturing process of LCD panels and silicon semiconductors. In recent years, electronic material manufacturers have been making capital investment in the fields of organic light emitting diode (OLED) display panels and low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) LCD panels, both of which are equipped with aluminum circuits. Therefore, the demand for high-purity BCl3 gas is expected to be stable in the future. Thus SDK decided to increase the productive capacity of its high-purity BCl3 manufacturing facility in Kawasaki Plant. SDK will start operation of the expanded BCl3 plant in this March. SDK’s electronic-material-processing high-purity gas business has a history of nearly 40 years, and is acclaimed by customers due to its high-level technology to purify, analyze and control quality of specialty gases, which we cultivated over many years. SDK is the one and only company in the world that manufactures and sells various types of high-purity gases including fluoride, chloride, bromide, and ammoniate gases. We offer high-purity gases suitable for each process of electronic material manufacturing. Under its ongoing medium-term consolidated business plan “Project 2020+,” SDK classifies its business in electronic-material-processing high-purity gases into the category of “Growth-accelerating” business. SDK will continue aiming to further strengthen and expand its specialty gas business, responding rapidly to the expansion of the global electronic materials market. Showa Denko is a major manufacturer and marketer of chemical products serving a wide range of fields ranging from heavy industry to the electronic and computer industries. SDK makes petrochemicals (ethylene, propylene), aluminum products (ingots, rods), electronic […]

SEMICON Southeast Asia 2016 Comes Back to Penang

Largest Regional Semiconductor Industry Conference Set To Draw More Than 7000 Visitors PENANG, Malaysia – SEMI, the global industry association serving the nano- and micro-electronic manufacturing supply chains, will once again be hosting SEMICON Southeast Asia (SEMICON SEA), the region’s premier showcase for microelectronics innovation. With the objective to champion regional collaboration, the showcase will open new business opportunities for customers and foster stronger cross-regional engagement. Set to take place from 26-28 April 2016 at the Subterranean Penang International Convention and Exhibition Centre (SPICE) in Penang, Malaysia, SEMICON SEA 2016 will offer a complete platform for engaging customers, suppliers, engineers and decision-makers from across the industry. According to Ng Kai Fai, President of SEMI Southeast Asia, “SEMICON SEA 2016 is the ideal place to discover the technologies and trends that are driving advances in microelectronics manufacturing. From an in-depth market trends briefing, to technology and business forums, visitors will be able to learn what is driving development and growth in the global and Southeast Asia microelectronics markets” “With stronger and more expanded content, we expect the showcase this year to reach to a larger audience, not only from Malaysia and Singapore, but also from leading semiconductor nations such as Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia,” he added. SEMICON SEA 2016 will focus on the key trends and solutions in semiconductor design and manufacturing, including emphasis on serving the needs of expanding applications markets many of which require development of specialised materials, packaging, and test technologies, as well as new architectures and processes. “Our inaugural SEMICON SEA 2015 was a resounding success with a total of 6,940 industry players from around the world attending the three-day conference. Furthermore, visitors last were those who are primarily involved in purchasing decisions, influencing the selection and final purchase of microelectronics manufacturing equipment, materials, components, and […]

Fujitsu develops new deep learning technology to analyse time-series data with high precision

KAWASAKI, Japan – Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced that it has developed deep learning technology that can analyse time-series data with a high degree of accuracy. Demonstrating promise for Internet-of-Things applications, time-series data can also be subject to severe volatility, making it difficult for people to discern patterns in the data. Deep learning technology, which is attracting attention as a breakthrough in the advance of artificial intelligence, has achieved extremely high recognition accuracy with images and speech, but the types of data to which it can be applied is still limited. In particular, it has been difficult to accurately and automatically classify volatile time-series data – such as that taken from IoT devices – of which people have difficulty discerning patterns. Now Fujitsu Laboratories has developed an approach to deep learning that uses advanced mathematical techniques to extract geometric features from time-series data, enabling highly accurate classification of volatile time-series. In benchmark tests held at UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository(2) that classified time-series data captured from gyroscopes in wearable devices, the new technology was found to achieve roughly 85% accuracy, about a 25% improvement over existing technology. This technology will be used in Fujitsu’s Human Centric AI Zinrai artificial intelligence technology. Background In recent years, in the field of machine learning, which is a central technology in artificial intelligence, deep learning technology has been attracting attention as a way to automatically extract feature values needed to interpret and assess phenomena without rules being taught manually. Especially in the IoT era, massive volumes of time-series data are being accumulated from devices. By applying deep learning to this data and classifying it with a high degree of accuracy, further analyses can be performed, holding the prospect that it will lead to the creation of new value and the opening of new […]

Creating a new era of connected consumer products

by Diego Tamburini, Manufacturing Industry Strategist at Autodesk Every day, more and more connected devices are coming to market, from phones and home appliances, to cars and buildings. Their potential to make consumers’ everyday lives more efficient, convenient, and easier is endless — but they also present new challenges to the designers, engineers, manufacturers and entrepreneurs who are building these connected products. With its rich heritage of creating powerful design solutions, the technology industry is well positioned to share the experience and knowledge that will help today’s makers tackle those challenges, and shift the way we think about designing consumer devices for the new connected future. Let’s take a look at the current “Era of Connection” and some of the trends at work. First and foremost, the lines between hardware and software — and between the physical and digital worlds— continue to blur as the devices that make up the Internet of Things (IoT) become more common. The Nest thermostat might have been the first IoT device to capture the public imagination, but more and more devices will combine a functional purpose with the ability to gather data, analyze it, and act upon it. Think of flair, whose teams in China and the US have developed a sensor-enabled product that replaces traditional HVAC vents to ensure a comfortable temperature in all rooms of the home throughout the entire day. flair can be controlled on your phone, over the Cloud, or it can be left to optimize climate control on its own. After living in Asia for 9 years, Olivier Risse, the founder of Floatility was inspired to solve the massive transportation problem facing most cities – and he believed that cars weren’t the best solution, especially for short distances. Developed across teams in Hamburg, Stuttgart, Singapore and Jakarta, the answer […]

Hitachi to Exhibit at the 13th Delhi Auto Expo 2016

The company will exhibit at the 13th Delhi Auto Expo 2016 – Components Show from February 4th-7th at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. The company will exhibit a wide range of advanced technologies developed by the Hitachi Automotive Systems Group at Hall No. 18 GF Stall 23. (List of Products on Display enclosed below). Hitachi Automotive Systems is focused in the areas of environment, safety, and information technology and aims to create value for society by contributing to the development of vehicles that connect society while providing safe, accident-free mobility with ultra-high fuel efficiency and a low carbon footprint. The company is also focused on rapidly expanding its global business. In Indian automotive market that is expected to exhibit stable and long-term growth, the company has invested over three billion rupees to launch the company group’s second Indian manufacturing base in Chennai in April 2015. The production of valve timing controls and ignition coils commenced at the manufacturing base in October 2015 and the additional new products are being continuously studied for the future. With India’s rapid economic expansion generating increased demand for cars, domestic production and sales in India continues to grow. By 2020, India is expected to become the world’s third largest car manufacturer, solidifying the country’s presence as a global automotive leader. At the same time, in the capital of New Delhi, as well as other cities in India, air pollution caused by airborne particulate matter (commonly measured as PM 2.5) has become a serious problem. Thus, society is looking to the car industry and technology leaders like Hitachi Automotive Systems to provide product solutions that respond to societies needs. The company will exhibit not only valve timing controls and ignition coils which are manufactured in its manufacturing base in Chennai, but also the company group’s wide range […]

Asia Manufacturing News Media Kit 2016

www.asiamanufacturingnewstoday.com

Smart chip tells you how healthy your battery is

In the picture: NTU Prof Rachid Yazami (left) holding his smart battery chip with research fellow Sohaib El Outmani holding a prototype testing device. Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have developed a smart chip which can tell you how healthy is your battery and if it is safe for use. If the battery in your smartphone or electric vehicle is faulty and is at risk of catching fire, this smart chip will warn you. Current warning systems only alert users when the battery is already overheating which may be too late for any remedial action. Developed by Professor Rachid Yazami of the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), this smart chip is small enough to be embedded in almost all batteries, from the small batteries in mobile devices to the huge power packs found in electric vehicles and advanced aeroplanes. A pioneer in battery research, Prof Yazami won the 2014 Draper Prize for Engineering awarded by the Washington-based National Academy of Engineering for being one of the three founders of lithium-ion battery. The prestigious award recognised his discovery in the 1980s in making lithium-ion batteries safely rechargeable, paving the way for its universal use today. “Although the risk of a battery failing and catching fire is very low, with the billions of lithium-ion batteries being produced yearly, even a one-in-a-million chance would mean over a thousand failures,” explained Prof Yazami, who holds more than 50 patents and has authored more than 200 scientific papers, book chapters and reports on batteries. “This poses a serious risk for electric vehicles and even in advanced aeroplanes as usually big battery packs have hundreds of cells or more bundled together to power the vehicle or aircraft. If there is a chemical fire caused by a single failed battery, it could cause […]

The development of smart manufacturing

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a sub-sector of the higher-level concept of the Internet of Everything (IoE) which connects people, processes, data and things, with the aim of bringing maximum value to the global economy. Technologies that have made IoE a reality include short range communications, embedded intelligence, cloud computing, next-generation networks, sensor technology, Big Data, and data analytics. The popularity of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in Asia-Pacific is largely attributable to informed manufacturing, which leads to a transparent and streamlined manufacturing process. Ivan Fernandez Industry Director, Industry Practice, Australia & New Zealand said “The top concern for discrete or process-manufacturing firms is the continuous effort to stay competitive. However, manufacturing competitiveness is not achieved by focusing on one parameter, but on a group of pertinent issues. Resource areas pertaining to people and process innovation are where manufacturing competitiveness is extensively pursued.” “Although Europe is seen to hold a major edge in terms of industries embracing IoT, several countries in Asia Pacific such as Australia, China, India, Japan and Singapore, will adopt these technologies to improve their global standing and become more competitive. Competition will force manufacturers to innovate and adapt various aspects of their manufacturing systems. Smart factories, considered to be the 4th industrial revolution or Industrie 4.0, will create a notable convergence of business models in manufacturing units. Embedded systems, combined with Internet connectivity and online data services, will kick-start the new era of cyber-physical systems, to enable smart factories. Smart factories A manufacturing plant is typically located over a large area and operates multiple machines which are difficult to manage without automation. The smooth functioning of a manufacturing plant, therefore, requires the development of an automated plant-floor with connected machines that receive and respond to orders from central control systems and human machine interfaces. […]

How IIoT Is Impacting Design Engineers

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is furthering its reach into engineering and design. Connected machines will give plant engineering operations the opportunity to identify points of inefficiency, improve upon those points, and in turn, improve profitability. To further discuss how IIoT is impacting work for design engineers, Mark Duncan, segment manager of material handling and packaging machinery for Schneider Electric’s industry business. In the future, Duncan believes engineers will have to focus on existing machine designs and their communications standards, and monitor those standards as they progress. Some examples of this include Internet protocols such as Ethernet, which promote machine-to-machine connectivity, more plug-and play-use, and a smoother transition into a plant environment. Duncan also believes that, as they look to the future, design engineers must be cognizant of the developing standards in machine-to-machine communication. “We have a customer that makes a machine for the coffee industry, and that machine is really built to be modular, connected, and is also built to be self-aware of its own capability and how it’s performing,” he said. “It’s also a safe machine, designed with safety built in. It communicates with other machines in a production line.” It’s Time To Look at Projects Differently- Strategies for Integrated Project Execution An example of this would be the material and product that comes into the machine, such as the one Duncan describes. That product would be processed by the machine, put into a package, and then moved to another machine, with the product cartons eventually taken to a palletizer. Using communication standards, this complete process is simpler than previous practices, where end users would have to reprogram each machine, allowing the machines to work together. Duncan expects that because of machine language standards (such as those for packaging machines using a language called PACKML) machines will […]

Who’s the master?

A robot’s role in a shared task could be continuously adjusted during the activity, thanks to a new adaptive robot control system developed by researchers at Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, that can sense whether a human operator wants to lead or follow. The innovation takes human–robot interactions to a new level of sophistication and opens a range of applications for robots that were previously too difficult to achieve. Humans are assisted by robots in everything from automotive manufacturing through to delicate surgical procedures and even search and rescue operations, but there remains much room for improvement and expansion of their roles. “Robots are still not as intelligent as we expect and this is particularly clear when it comes to human–robot interactions,” says Li Yanan from the A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R). Though extremely useful for performing repetitive or high-precision tasks and for bearing heavy loads, in many applications robots can only be engaged when guided by a human operator to the start location or object. Once engaged, the robot often takes autonomous control of the task. However, as the role of a robot for any task is usually preset and difficult to change during operations, robots are difficult to manage in tasks where its function might switch frequently, such as in high-mix, low-volume applications like welding, polishing and painting. To extend the utility of robots to improve such nuanced human–robot collaborations, Li and colleagues from the I2R set out to develop a control code that sensed the intent of the human operator, based on the force they exerted on the robot, and adjusted the role of the robot automatically. “In the code, to estimate the human operator’s motion intention so that the robot control strategy could be changed, we used game theory, which provides useful […]

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