Air Products & Chemicals Announces New Facility for St. Charles, Missouri

The company recently announced that it will construct a manufacturing facility in St. Charles, Missouri, and keep in service a similar facility located in St. Louis. An announcement says the project will "increase manufacturing capacity of its full line of PRISM(®) membrane products. The new facility will increase Air Products' membrane output by over 50 percent. It will provide for state-of-the-art hollow fiber production and module assembly technology across the full range of multiple PRISM membrane offerings. The new plant is to be on-stream in early 2010."

Jim Alexander represents the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association in IAMC. Susan Reber and Eugene Ervin are the IAMC Active members with Air Products and Chemicals.

The company ranks at number 258 on the Fortune 500 list and places fifth in the chemicals industry group.

Schematic of how membrane technology produces nitrogen gas
Source: http://www.airproducts.com/Products/Equipment/PRISMMembranes/page01.htm

Catalent Opens High-Tech Warehouse in England

Catalent Pharma Solutions provides contract services to pharmaceutical companies. An article in PharmTech says the company has "opened a new temperature-controlled warehouse in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, to meet demand for clinical supply services, especially cold-chain storage and distribution. The 11,800-sq.-ft. warehouse is an extension of the existing facility and features 2,000 controlled ambient storage locations and a 320-pallet refrigerator."

Phillip Wilson is the IAMC Active member with Catalent.

Plastics News ranks Catalent 88th in the world in sales of thermo-formed products

Architectural rendering of BD plant planned for Tatabanya, Hungary
Source: http://www.bd.com/hu/english/manufacturing.asp

BD Breaks Ground on Plant in Hungary

Health care is one of the least cyclical of industries. So, as many consumer-driven companies are cutting back, drug and medical device maker BD is making a major investment and hiring hundreds in Hungary. BD's Web site says the company "held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new state-of-the-art pre-fillable syringe manufacturing facility in Tatabanya, Hungary. The 100 million € capital investment project is expected to generate approximately 500 new jobs in Tatabanya and the surrounding communities in the next six years. The manufacturing facility is being built to help meet growing worldwide demand for pre-fillable syringes that are sold to pharmaceutical companies. The prefilled syringe format has been found to reduce the potential for medication error and contamination."

Karen DeMarinis is the IAMC Active member with BD.

BD ranks number 380 on Fortune 500 list and is fourth in the medical products and equipment industry group.

DuPont Titanium Tetrachloride Processing Unit Starts Operations

The chemical manufacturing giant DuPont produces intermediate materials that are essential to the making of thousands of industrial and consumer goods. Titanium tetrachloride is an example of such an input. A DuPont announcement says, "a new titanium tetrachloride purification unit has begun operations at the New Johnsonville, Tenn., titanium dioxide site. Most of the production of the high purity chemical will be used in the growing titanium metal manufacturing industry. Titanium metal increasingly is being used in everything from airplanes to sporting goods and chemical processing equipment. Titanium tetrachloride is an intermediate chemical produced during the early steps of the chloride process for manufacturing titanium dioxide. In addition to its use in titanium metal manufacturing, it is essential to the production of certain plastics. It also has specialized applications in pearlescent pigments used in products ranging from cars and cosmetics to bicycle helmets."

Judith Passwaters is the IAMC Active member with DuPont.

DuPont ranks 88th on the Fortune 500 list and is 2nd in the chemicals industry group.

GlaxoSmithKline's London headquarters
Source: http://article.wn.com/view/2008/10/15/Glaxo_acquires_business_in_Egypt/

GSK Buys Bristol-Myers' Egyptian Unit

Global companies are working hard to extend their market coverage to emerging-market countries to take advantage of the high sales growth rates that can be realized there. GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK's) recent acquisition of a Bristol-Myers Squibb operation in Egypt is an example of this. A PharmTech article says, "GSK will acquire the Egyptian mature products business of Bristol-Myers Squibb for $210 million in a move to accelerate sales growth and extend its pharmaceutical portfolio in emerging markets. As a result of the acquisition, GSK will become the leading pharmaceutical company in Egypt with a market share of approximately nine percent."

Jack Smith is the IAMC Active member with GSK.

GlaxoSmithKline ranks 151 on Fortune's Global 500 list and is 3rd within the pharmaceuticals industry group.

3M Unit in Indiana to Expand

3M is acknowledged as one of the best at growing nascent product ideas and small business units into successful multi-million dollar operations. It should not be surprising, then, to learn that the 3M subsidiary Aearo Technologies, which makes safety equipment for industrial applications, plans to expand its operations in Plymouth, Ind. Reporting on this, an Inside Indiana Business article says, "it [Aearo] will expand its operations in Indiana, creating 54 new jobs by 2011. The maker of a myriad of safety equipment including safety glasses, ear protectors and respiratory equipment will relocate work from its Oklahoma production facility to a yet-to-be constructed 25,000-square-foot facility in the city's Heritage Industrial Park." "Headquartered in Indianapolis, Aearo Technologies employs more than 90 associates in Plymouth and will begin hiring production associates, clerical staff and warehouse technicians in the first quarter of 2009 in preparation of the new facility's opening in late 2009," continues the report.

Doyle Shea is the IAMC Active member with 3M.

The company ranks 100th on the Fortune 500 list and sits atop Fortune's "miscellaneous" industry group.

Pfizer's facility in Illertissen, Germany
Source: http://www.bio-pro.de/en/region/ulm/magazin/04605/index.html

Pfizer Plant Wins Facility-of-the-Year Award

The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering sponsors an annual award called the Facility of the Year Award (FOYA) for the most innovative new pharmaceutical facility. A Pfizer plant in Illertissen, Germany, is the 2008 winner. A PharmTech article reports, "The newly built NEWCON, which stands for NEW CONtainment, facility is a single-floor, single-containment module. The facility was named the winner in part because its production equipment is located in a dedicated processing module and is mostly automated to ensure that no dust from the highly potent varenicline ("Chantix" and "Champix") can escape from the manufacturing area. For the first time, dust-free production and fully automated production of film-coated tablets was made possible. All of the process stages are controlled and monitored from a separate control room so that employees do not come into contact with dust that might be generated during the tablet production run."

Sean Nugent and Mark Eichkorn are the IAMC Active members with Pfizer.

The company ranks 47th on the Fortune 500 list and is 2nd in the pharmaceuticals industry group.

Thermo Fisher Acquires Raymond A. Lamb, Ltd.

In a tough, competitive marketplace, sometimes the best way to grow is to buy another company. That's what Thermo Fisher did when it acquired Raymond A. Lamb Ltd in the U.K. A Thermo Fisher press release says Lamb is "a manufacturer of histology and anatomical pathology products based in Eastbourne, U.K., near London. In business since 1964, Raymond A. Lamb has grown to become a global provider of products for the pathology laboratory. Recently, its focus has been on systems that automate the labeling and tracking of slides and cassettes that carry patient tissue samples, reducing the possibility of errors during their processing, storage and retrieval. The company has had a longstanding relationship with the anatomical pathology business of Thermo Fisher as a supplier of labeling products for cassettes and glass slides, as well as other anatomical pathology equipment."

William Jenkins is the IAMC Active member with Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The company ranks 269th on the Fortune-500 list and is 3rd in the scientific, photographic and control equipment industry group.

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
Source: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34507&page=21

Northrop Grumman Turkish Contractor Builds Plant to Make F-35 Fuselages

The world's large commercial and military aircraft manufacturers contract with companies around the world for components of the planes they are manufacturing. To build the F35 fighter, Northrop Grumman has partnered with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), which will build fuselages. TAI has constructed a 74,000 sq. ft. facility for the work. A Market Watch story says, "The opening of the ... facility represents TAI's latest progress towards becoming a second source producer of F-35 center fuselages for Northrop Grumman. Under a Letter of Intent signed with Northrop Grumman in Feb. 2007, TAI plans to produce and assemble at least 400 center fuselages beginning in the low rate initial production (LRIP) phases of the program."

The IAMC Active members with Northrop Grumman are Eugene Canale, Michael Brendes and Joseph Jones.

The company ranks 76th on the Fortune-500 list and is 5th in the aerospace and defense industry group.

Northrop Grumman in JV to Build Nuclear Power Plant Components

The recent energy price spike has dampened public opposition to new nuclear power plants and bolstered the political will be build them. Northrop Grumman and French company AREVA have formed a joint venture to cash in on this opportunity. The Newport News Daily Press reports, "Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and French nuclear giant AREVA announced they will invest $363 million and create 540 jobs at a new 368,000-square-foot nuclear reactor manufacturing facility. The presence of the new industry will add an important layer of diversity to the shipyard and the city." "The building where the joint venture will do the work will be constructed in the north end of the shipyard where there is currently a large parking lot. The companies make the large components that will be used to construct a wave of planned reactors nationwide, but [do] not handle any radioactive nuclear materials," explains the article.

* With each project, we provide the name(s) of the IAMC Active member(s) from the company involved. This is for information purposes. We are not indicating or suggesting that the member was involved in the project.