Applied Materials Begins Shipments of World’s Largest, Fastest,
Roll-to-Roll Vacuum Coating Systems
ALZENAU, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Applied Materials, Inc. today announced that it has begun shipping
multiple Applied Topmet™ 4450 systems,
the world's largest and fastest, roll-to-roll thin film metal deposition
machine, to a customer in Europe. This latest model of Applied’s Topmet
4450 product line deposits ultra-thin aluminum films on 4.5m (15 feet)
wide rolls of substrate material at a remarkable 20 meters per second
(45 miles per hour) to provide a barrier against oxygen, moisture and
ultra-violet radiation for flexible packaging applications. New
technology advances in the system produce state-of-the-art film quality
while doubling the coated area output to drive down coated film
production cost by more than 20%.
“We are excited about the growth potential of the roll-to-roll equipment
business for flexible packaging as well as emerging applications such as
flexible electronics, displays and solar,” said James Robson, vice
president and general manager of Applied’s Glass and Web Product Group.
“The expanded Topmet 4450 system builds on 50 years of leadership in
roll-to-roll machine design, with almost 600 systems installed
worldwide, and also reflects Applied Materials’ extensive expertise in
scaling up complex manufacturing equipment and processes.”
The new Topmet 4450 system is considerably faster than competing
systems. It not only provides direct cost savings, but also enables
higher material yield, simplified downstream processing, reduced labor
requirements and a smaller factory footprint. The system’s efficient use
of power and raw materials, enabled by advanced high rate evaporation
sources, closed-loop automatic layer control and high performance
pumping systems, results in lower operating costs. In addition, an award
winning real-time layer thickness monitoring system enables consistent
coating uniformity while the novel uniform-tension roller design
provides high speed, wrinkle-free material handling.
“We are proud to support our customers’ drive to lower production costs
through our continuous system innovation,” said John Busch, head of
Applied’s Web Coating Group. “With this system, we boosted output,
lowered operating expense and maintained quality – making the
industry-leading thin film metallization systems even better. Applied
will continue to earn its leadership position in vacuum coating
production solutions with innovative products and superior customer
support.”
For more information on Applied’s roll-to-roll solutions, visit www.appliedmaterials.com/products/rolltoroll_3.html.
Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) is the global leader in
Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with a broad portfolio of
innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication
of semiconductor chips, flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic cells,
flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. At Applied Materials,
we apply Nanomanufacturing Technology to improve the way people live.
Learn more at www.appliedmaterials.com.
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