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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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