TFS employees are cutting piping for GlobalFoundries

Total Facility Solutions Inc., a company of the M+W Group, is the leading mechanical contracting company in the Capital Region.  Featured in the Albany Business Review’s “The List,” reporting a total sales volume over $100 million, TFS completed 140 projects in 2011 and over 250 are currently underway in the Capital Region including high-profile projects like GlobalFoundries, the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering at SUNY, Regeneron and IBM.

The company relocated their headquarters, along with M+W U.S., Inc. late this year and a grand opening will follow in the coming months.  TFS currently employs 345 men and women in the Capital Region, employing over 700 people company-wide.  Together TFS and M+W US provide the broadest range of design/build services available.

National leader in precision polymer castings will create and retain 30 nanotechnology jobs through collaboration with College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and Arsenal Partnership

Watervliet, New York (November 30, 2011) – Officials from the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany, the Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership (Partnership), and the Watervliet Arsenal today announced that Cleveland Polymer Technologies has rejected overtures to move outside of New York and instead will establish its headquarters and expand its operations at the Watervliet Arsenal.

The company plans to create and retain 30 high-tech jobs in New York’s burgeoning nanotechnology industry, and utilize 30,000 square feet of space – triple the size of its existing facility in Elmira, NY – as part of a $15 million investment that includes fit-up and renovation of space at the Arsenal and the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment.

The nation’s largest manufacturer of precision polymer concrete castings, CPT has outgrown its current facility and had been considering relocation to Ohio. Instead, the company chose to remain in New York because of the availability of suitable manufacturing space at the Arsenal, access to world-class research and a highly trained workforce through a partnership with the UAlbany NanoCollege, and the ability to collaborate with leading global high-tech companies at CNSE’s Albany NanoTech Complex and the Arsenal.

“The story of Cleveland Polymer’s relocation to the Watervliet Arsenal is yet another chapter in the growing success story in our region,” said New York State Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari. “Anchored by support from the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, the Arsenal Partnership continues to actively attract high tech companies and the private sector investment and quality job opportunities they bring to the once endangered Watervliet Arsenal.”

Panos Angelopoulos, President of Cleveland Polymer Technologies, said, “This is an exciting day for Cleveland Polymer Technologies. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to remain in New York while taking a critical step forward in building our company’s future. With the support of Assembly Majority Leader Canestrari, access to existing technical resources and services at the Watervliet Arsenal, and the collaboration with the world-class research center at CNSE along with the leading high-tech companies present, we are poised to accelerate the development of CPT’s innovative technologies, expand our customer base, and add high-tech jobs to the economy.”

Dr. Alain E. Kaloyeros, Senior Vice President and CEO of CNSE, said, “The announcement that Cleveland Polymer Technologies will remain and grow in New York State is testimony to the success of New York’s innovative strategy to build a world-class nanotechnology ecosystem, as embodied by the leadership and advocacy of Assembly Majority Leader Canestrari, under the overarching vision, support and guidance of Governor Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Silver.  New York is winning the global competition to attract high-tech jobs, companies and investment by leveraging the unparalleled assets and resources of the UAlbany NanoCollege to give new vibrancy to urban areas, revitalize brownfields, invigorate landmark facilities and historical assets such as the Watervliet Arsenal, and create new opportunities to drive economic development and community renaissance.”

Peter Gannon, President of the Arsenal Business and Technology Partnership, said “Cleveland Polymer continues the trend of high tech companies relocating to Tech Valley, and at the Watervliet Arsenal site.  We are excited to see another large portion of space being renovated for use by a company that is sure to play a large role in Tech Valley.  With M+W, Vistec and now Cleveland Polymer as Arsenal residents, the draw of the Watervliet Arsenal will continue to rise.”

A 120,000-square-foot former machine shop built during World War I, Building 125 is also occupied by Vistec Lithography, a major customer of CPT technology. CPT first came to Watervliet during Vistec’s grand opening, when Vistec moved from Cambridge, England to the Arsenal. The other anchor in Building 125 is the M+W Group, U.S., which is currently finishing up construction on its new North American headquarters, which has been relocated from Dallas, Texas. Co-location with these industry leaders, as well as the research CPT will do in collaboration with the NanoCollege, will allow the company to better market its products and stimulate new business.

CPT’s precision polymer castings technology replaces traditional cast iron, aluminum, steel, granite and conventional cement concrete in a variety of machine tool bases used in nanoelectronics manufacturing. The result is cost-effective production of lighter, stronger products that reduce vibration and are energy efficient and environmentally safe, while prolonging the life of high-tech machine tools.

Already a supplier to high-tech equipment manufacturers serving the nanoelectronics, automotive, graphic arts and medical industries – such as Applied Materials, ASML, KLA-Tencor and Veeco, among others – CPT is now expanding into additional sectors, including transportation, energy, environmental treatment and architectural restoration.

The video is a joint effort that showcases the manufacturing capabilities of the skilled Watervliet workforce, the advanced research and development capabilities of Benet Laboratories, and the work of the Arsenal Partnership to attract a wide range of private companies, from defense to high technology to entrepreneurial start-ups, who now call the Arsenal home.

Thank you to our partners at Media Stream and Gramercy Communications for their work on this important project.

Photo: Hans Pennink / AP

Arsenal Partnership President Peter Gannon attended the NY Open for Business Statewide Conference at the Empire State Plaza in Albany yesterday, Sept. 27, 2011.

From the Times Union, “A $4.4 billion high-tech research project involving five global companies will create or retain 6,900 jobs statewide, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. The effort involves Intel, IBM Corp., GlobalFoundries, the Taiwan semiconductor maker TSMC and Samsung. The companies plan to develop a next generation of computer chip technology to increase speed and capacity.”

For more information on New York Open For Business and the Regional Economic Development Councils, click here.

The Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership was one of the primary sponsors of The Business Review’s Power Breakfast: Tech Valley 4.0 on Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. The Partnership’s president, Peter Gannon, gave introductory remarks at the event which was attended by leaders in business, government and education from around New York’s Capital Region. The panelists, from GE, RPI, UAlbany and Vicarious Visions discussed what they think Tech Valley needs to continue to prosper and grow.

Sept. 7, 2011 – Jena, Germany / Watervliet, US –

The International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology takes place in Beijing from Sept. 7-9, 2011. “Looking at the developments in China over the past decade it is magnificent what has been achieved. We still see an enormous demand for electron-beam lithography to satisfy the challenging nanolithography applications. Therefore our aim is to enforce our current activities”, explains Ines Stolberg, Marketing Manager at Vistec Group. “Being at the ChinaNANO conference is one step of Vistec’s long term marketing & sales strategy. Further steps are organizing regular workshops, being present at trade shows and having an individual customer support.”

As part of this, Vistec has organized a workshop, in partnership with one of its Beijing based customers NCNST, who has enthusiastically agreed to act as host, before this year’s ChinaNANO 2011 conference, on September 6th, 2011. “This was an important step towards informing the Chinese market of what electron-beam lithography has to offer for leading edge technology centres such as NCNST”, reflects Stolberg.

At the workshop Vistec has been pleased to welcome experts in their field like Prof. Chen Baoqin, IMECAS, Dr. Peter Hahmann and Dr. Ralf Steingrueber, Fraunhofer HHI, who gave technology presentations in both electron-beam technology in general and the use of such systems for the development of new devices for various applications. More than 40 scientists from leading edge research institutes and universities / Centers of excellence from throughout China attended the workshop.

At the ChinaNANO 2011 Vistec focuses on its EBPG5200 Series and EBPG5000 Series systems. These systems have evolved over many years with considerable input and feedback from Vistec’s extensive worldwide customer base and fulfil the needs of tomorrows required accuracy and resolution along with flexibility for a wide range of applications. Vistec is also a manufacturer of high throughput Variable Shaped Beam systems for industrial mask and direct write manufacturing.

“Overall we see our self very well placed to meet the needs of the fast moving Chinese market for both Research & Development as well as industrial applications”, explains Stolberg. “We are pleased to discuss this in more detail at the ChinaNANO 2011 by our team of experts present.”
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Media Information:
Vistec Electron Beam Lithography Group
The Vistec Electron Beam Lithography Group is a global manufacturer and supplier of electron-beam lithography systems with applications ranging from nano and bio-technology to photonics and industrial environments like mask making or direct writing for fast prototype development and design evaluation. The Vistec Electron Beam Lithography Group combines Vistec Lithography and Vistec Electron Beam.

Vistec Lithography
Vistec Lithography develops, manufactures, and sells electron-beam lithography equipment based on Gaussian Beam technology. Their electron-beam systems are world-wide accepted in advanced research laboratories and universities.

Vistec Electron Beam
Vistec Electron Beam is providing electron-beam lithography equipment based on Shaped Beam technology, which is used by leading semiconductor manufacturers and many research institutes around the world. Their innovative electron-beam systems are used for microchip production and integrated optics as well as for scientific and commercial research.

For downloads of all media releases and images in print quality please visit the website at www.vistec-semi.com. If you require other formats or images please do not hesitate to contact us.
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Ines Stolberg
Manager Strategic Marketing Litho
Vistec Lithography, Inc.
125 Monroe Street
Watervliet, NY 12189 (USA)

Vistec Electron Beam GmbH
Goeschwitzer Strasse 25
D-07745 Jena (Germany)
Tel.: +49(0)3641/651955
Fax: +49(0)3641/651922
pr@vistec-semi.com
www.vistec-semi.com

PR Agency
Tower PR
Leutragraben 1
D-07743 Jena (Germany)
Tel.: +49(0)3641/8761182
vistec@tower-pr.com
www.tower-pr.com

Kathy Caruso (Arsenal Partnership) (left), and Kathy Kearsing (Sunmark Credit Union) (right), present Bill Sheehy, (Watervliet Civic Center) with donation for youth programs.

In late July, the Arsenal Partnership partnered with Sunmark Credit Union to host the second annual Tenants’ Day Out, offering Dinosaur BBQ, Coccadots cupcakes and plenty of game prizes to its tenant companies on site.  At this year’s event donations were accepted to support youth in the community.

On Aug. 29, 2011, on behalf of the Partnership, its tenant companies at the Watervliet Arsenal, and Sunmark Credit Union, Kathy Caruso, Partnership Administrator, and Kathy Kearsing, Sunmark’s Watervliet Arsenal Branch Manager, presented Bill Sheehy of the Watervliet Civic Center with a donation of $1,028 to support its youth programs.

Rick Whitney, CEO of M + W Group, left, Alain Kaloyeros, Senior Vice President and CEO of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, center, and Peter Gannon, President of Arsenal Business and Technology, in the open office space of M + W new headquarters on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011, at the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, N.Y. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

The following is an article published by the Times Union on Sunday, August 7, 2011 by Larry Rulison.

Moving on up(state)

The story behind M+W Group moving its U.S. headquarters from Plano, Texas, to Watervliet Arsenal is not about the Capital Region beating out the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to lure a single coveted company to the region.

M+W chose upstate New York over other high-tech hotbeds because the semiconductor industry is booming here more than anywhere else in the country.

“It’s where our business is,” said Rick Whitney, chief executive officer of M+W U.S., the general contractor for the $4.6 billion computer chip factory that GlobalFoundries is building in Saratoga County. “When we looked at who our clients are, we’re seeing more and more of them being located in the Capital Region. This is the one place in the country where we can be side by side with our biggest clients on a daily basis.”

Gannon, Kaloyeros, and Whitney walk through an yet to be developed area on the way to the new headquarters of M + W. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

That includes not only GlobalFoundries, but also the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, General Electric Co., IBM and Sematech, according to a list of the company’s top customers. All have a major presence in this region — and several of them could be planning additional manufacturing projects here over the next several years, including a second factory for GlobalFoundries. GE, which has its renewable energy headquarters in Schenectady, is also in the process of planning the largest solar factory in U.S. history.

M+W is a major player when it comes to building sophisticated manufacturing clean rooms and labs for the electronics and biotech industries as well as top state and federal research institutions.

M+W has had a presence in the Capital Region for nearly 10 years. And now the company is on the verge of completing construction of its new U.S. headquarters at Watervliet Arsenal, a military installation in the city of Watervliet where the U.S. Army makes cannon and other weapon and equipment components.

M+W’s history at the arsenal dates to 2004, when the company worked with state officials to establish the Center for Construction Trades Training, a $6 million program to train workers to build semiconductor plants. Many of the laborers working on the GlobalFoundries project at Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta completed the training program, which received millions of dollars in state funding obtained by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Along with its design of the Albany NanoTech complex, one would think that M+W’s selection to build the GlobalFoundries fab — and the move to the arsenal — was part of a grand design.

But Whitney says it was more about a leap of faith the company took, based on watching the state invest hundreds of millions of dollars in semiconductor manufacturing research in partnership with IBM, which has computer chip manufacturing operations in East Fishkill, less than two hours down the Thruway. The strategy bore fruit with the 2006 decision by GlobalFoundries to build its facility, which will likely grow to a $7 billion fab that will begin production next year.

Artist's rendering of the new headquarters of M + W (Cindy Schultz / TU)

“We saw the vision and the commitment by New York state,” Whitney said. “We decided that this was a hot spot and we needed to be here. It just made sense.”

That decision led Whitney to agree last year with state officials to move M+W U.S. from Plano, outside Dallas — home to semiconductor giant Texas Instruments — to the arsenal. M+W has promised to invest $225 million in its local operations over the next five years and to bring 190 jobs to Watervliet. The deal was once again struck with Silver, the Assembly speaker, along with Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari and Alain Kaloyeros, chief executive officer of the NanoCollege.

The move is nearly complete, as well as the renovation of 40,000 square feet of space in Building 125, a structure at the arsenal built in 1918 where the Army made cannon parts until 2003. The building, among others, has been developed by a nonprofit group called the Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership that the Army pays to fill unused space at the arsenal.
The partnership has been able to attract dozens of companies to the arsenal, including Vistec Lithography, a British semiconductor tool manufacturer that relocated its operations to Building 125 in 2008. But M+W is by far the biggest company with the broadest focus to move to the arsenal.

Gannon, Kaloyeros, and Whitney in a future conference room of the new headquarters of M + W (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

“It gives us a tremendous amount of credibility,” says Peter Gannon, the partnership’s president. “It’s opened the door for companies from all sectors.”

Kaloyeros, who is a member of the partnership’s board, says another major benefit of M+W’s relocation here is the fact that the company is part of the $100 billion service sector for the semiconductor industry. That provides a signal to the rest of the semiconductor industry that this is a place to be.

“It has certain psyche factor to it,” Kaloyeros said. “This type of PR, you can’t buy with money.