In an announcement late yesterday the Connecticut-headquartered firm said it had significantly increased manufacturing capacity at its plant in Bloomginton, Minnesota after a two-year project and investment of $45.5m (€3.4m)
ATMI said that the expansion, which houses a 2,500 sqft Class 1000 cleanroom, applications laboratory and a separate development lab, makes the plant a hub for its single-use bioprocess tech business, including the 2D and 3D vessels it launched earlier this month.
The move doubles ATMI’s global bioprocess vessel production capacity, which is now split between the Bloomington US and its manufacturing facility in Hoegaarden in Belgium.
In a press statement CEO Doug Neugold explained that the expansion was a “direct response to the growing needs of our North American customers for additional single-use bioprocess vessel manufacturing capacity.
“Creating an exact copy of our Belgian facility for change management and supply chain security reasons also helped us to quickly replicate cGMP procedures.”
Life sciences
ATMI’s investment is an indication of the firm’s desire to build on the gains made by its life sciences business in the second quarter.
The division contributed revenue of $7.5m (€5.7m) for the three months ended June 30, which, although only a fraction of that contributed by its microelectronics business, still represents growth of 27 per cent.
Neugold said that ATMI’s life sciences business had “won orders for multiple new applications at major producers, indicating the continued acceptance and adoption of single use technologies by an expanding customer base."