Server: Roxen·Challenger/1.1 Content-type: text/html Last-Modified: Sat, 31 Aug 1996 15:29:37 +0000 Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 01:46:37 +0000 Content-length: 6375 Flanders Corporation - Customers


Our Customers

Our customers and end users include some of the world's leading high technology corporations, as well as military and government-supported research facilities. Most of our customers come from the following industries:

Semiconductors - We sell air filtration systems to many of the world's major semiconductor manufacturers, both directly and through cleanroom specialty contractors. The increasingly stringent manufacturing environment requirements of semiconductor manufacturers have driven many of the advances in filtration technology during the past decade. HEPA, ULPA and VLSI laminar flow grade final filters are the most critical component of a semiconductor manufacturer's cleanrooms. A typical state-of-the-art semiconductor product line will have 75,000 square feet of laminar flow grade filters, worth approximately $1.8 million in revenues to the Company. A $1.3 billion semiconductor "super-fab" manufacturing facility may have three of these lines, with filters accounting for approximately $5 million of the cost of the manufacturing facility.

Although most of our sales to the semiconductor industry are through regional distributors and specialty general contractors, the end users evaluate, qualify, select and test the filters for the facilities, not the contractors or distributors. During the past three years, Flanders Filters have been installed at facilities for many semiconductor manufacturers, including Intel, Motorola, Atmel, Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC, Sumitomo, Micron, Taisil Semiconductor Corporation (in Taiwan), IBM, Prime View International (in Taiwan), Applied Materials and Zilog.

Air Conditioning Equipment Distributors - Flanders sells replacement filters for commercial HVAC systems directly to a network of air-conditioning equipment distributors, who then sell them to end users. These distributors are Airpure's primary customers, accounting for more than 60% of Airpure's sales. Customers in this category include National Air Filter and Carolina Filters. Airpure also sell products to OEMs, who then remarket the products under their own name. Customers in this category include Filtration Group/Midwest Filters and Tri-Dem Filter Corp.

Barrier Isolators - We have just entered the barrier isolator market, with small sales to two major pharmaceutical companies. We believe there is a significant market for these products, which are placed in semiconductor, pharmaceutical and biomedical production and research facilities, as well as research facilities in other high-technology industries.

Chemical and Synthetics - We have made limited sales to the chemical and synthetics manufacturing industries. We have sold VOC filters and contamination control systems to several major chemical manufacturing companies.

Containment - We have historically sold small quantities of containment products for non-nuclear applications to several customers, most of whom have purchased other Company products. Flanders' containment systems customers include Westinghouse, Idaho National Engineering Laboratories, Canadian Animal Disease Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Daw Technologies, and the U.S. Navy.

Cleanroom Contractors - Most of our semiconductor cleanroom filter and equipment sales in 1995 were to general contractors specializing in cleanroom construction, particularly to the semiconductor industry. While semiconductor manufacturers generally evaluate, qualify, select and test the filters for their facilities, contracts for these facilities are frequently written through a specialty cleanroom contractor 2or general contractor. During the past two years, purchase orders were received from Performance Contracting, Inc.; Brod - McClung, Pace; Daw Technologies, Inc. and other specialty cleanroom contractors.

Industrial - There are many applications for the Flanders products in standard industrial settings; the largest application has been systems used by auto makers to remove "oil mist" contaminants from the air in their plants. Major industrial customers using the Company products include Monroe Environmental and Helicel Dynamics.

Nuclear Facility - Filtration systems are critical to the emergency containment procedures for all nuclear facilities. While the nuclear industry is not currently growing rapidly, the market for replacement filters is fairly steady. Recent customers for nuclear-grade filtration systems include the U.S. Department of Energy's research facilities, Siemens Nuclear Power, Westinghouse's nuclear plants, the various national laboratories, and the U.S. Navy.

Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology - We sell filtration systems for both research and production facilities in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The requirements for cleanrooms in these industries differ from those of semiconductor manufacturers, with increased emphasis on preventing cross-contamination by isolating each process in a separate air stream (i.e., laminarity is extremely critical), speed of room recovery from contamination, and decreased emphasis on actual particle counts. Currently, most pharmaceuticals are not manufactured in cleanrooms, but recent regulation changes for the industry which increase the standards for purity and production quality of pharmaceuticals have led to increased demand for pharmaceutical cleanrooms.


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