Ruwel opens two new plants
Ruwel opens two new plants
Keyword Ruwel
The Ruwel-Group was the biggest European circuit board manufacturer in 1999 with an annual turnover of DM435 million. Currently, there are 1,850 people employed at eight European production locations. The core philosophy of the enterprise is to offer all types of circuit boards, in all quantities and for almost all areas of application. The main markets are telecommunications (31 percent) and the automotive industry (36 percent). This extraordinary wide product spectrum enables Ruwel to support its main customers in their endeavours to reduce their number of suppliers.
Typically the circuit board industry experiences vast advances in technology,international competition and downward pressure on prices, as well as material dependency in certain areas. To continue to fulfil these market requirements successfully, two big investments are planned over the next two years.
Masslam-plant
A new masslam plant is planned to manufacture inner layers for six to 20 layer multilayers, processing of high-performance-materials like high-Tg-material and very thin (50m) inner layers, by using new production technologies; perfect handling of the economic large size 610 6 610 mm:
Investment: approx. DM60 million m2.
Building: approx. DM6,000 m2.
Capacity: approx. 1,5 million m2 (can be extended to 2,0 million sqm).
No. of jobs: approx. 150
Start of building: September 2000
Completion: 3rd quarter 2001.
New HDl-plant (HDI = high-density-interconnect)
A new HDI plant is also planned to manufacture high-layer multilayers with very fine structures and laser drilled micro holes:
Investment: approx DM100 million.
Building: approx. 10,000 m2.
Capacity: approx. 150,000 m2 circuit area.
No. of jobs: approx. 250.
start of production: approx. 2002/2003.
Reasons
The more complex and demanding a circuit board is, the higher its value and the less the pressure of competition. In the case of high-layer multilayers the value is especially high. So far these have only been required for special applications in small or medium size quantities. However, due to the exensive proliferation of mobile networks; Internet technologies; and navigation systems and GPS for the car sector there is a higher demand for high-layer multilayers in very large quantities. These are used in receiving and sending stations which are installed at increasingly closer distances to ensure complete coverage of supply without any "radio holes". Further expansion of this market is created by the presence of several providers with their own infrastructure and their own networks. In the medium term, high sales are ensured by the fact that even after possible market saturation in Europe, there is still a considerable requirement in regions like China or the Middle East. There, the fixed net telecommunications generation has been completely skipped and high capability mobile networks are being installed as a first step. Although fine lines with micro holes within the telecommunications sector are already standard, there is now a clear trend emerging in the car industry as well.
For the production of multilayers, Masslam is required, i.e. the inner layers of the multilayer circuits. Today, the circuit board not only serves as a connection platform for components, but also has to include increasingly more functions, for example, integrated condensators. These must already be planned when manufacturing the inner layers. In the plant in Goch, which was extended in 1998, Ruwel has got the capacity for 500,000 m2 Masslam. This capacity is already fully utilised by the enterprise group during the course of this year.
Additional, external Masslam purchase is possible, but uneconomical. An internationally competitive and economic price structure cannot be achieved with externally bought inner layers. Futhermore, it would create an unsatisfactory supplier dependency (only few suppliers, limited capacities).
The planned extension of the Bayonne plant (from 700,000 - 1,000,000 m2),will include approximately 50 percent of multilayer production. The plant Goch will concentrate its supplies to the Bayonne plant. Under these conditions, a new Masslam fabrication must be established for the plants Geldern, Wetter,Grassau and Pfullingen. The favoured location was Geldern, due to its logistic connection. A 32,000m2 plot adjoining the present Ruwel-Head-Centre has been bought from the town of Geldern. During the first building phase a 6,000m2, highly modern fabrication will be built on a 17,000m2section of this plot. To facilitate the rapidly growing customer requirements,the building of the plant will be built as fast as possible. (Production start 3rd quarter 2001.)
The forementioned markets do not just follow the trend for high-layer multilayers. The circuit design and respective holes are also getting increasingly finer. With the help of HDI-fabrication with the most modern laser drilling machines, lasers for contour processing and direct exposure without films, the requirements for these high quality circuits are met. These products have such a high concentration that this could require access into the US-American market on a broad front for Ruwel. This step is of utmost importance in view of global competition.
By concentrating on the laser technique in the production of HDI-circuits,Ruwel has stopped its activities with respect to the parallel initiated photovia-technology at the Swiss location of Gams and is closing down the smallest plant with 50 employees within the group by the 30 September. The previous known company MBE was the only production location in Europe that could manufacture micro holes at least in small quantities, with photovia-technology. This type of production method used to be more cost effective than the production of micro holes by laser technique, since the laser drilling equipment was very expensive to buy, but was very slow in production. In Asia and the USA the photovia-technology is acknowledged as a tested production standard for micro holes. Large companies including some European companies, voiced an interest in using this technology. Encouraged by this, Ruwel integrated MBE AG into the enterprise group. It was the declared intention to extend the existing capacity of this site and to introduce this technology to large customers on a broad front, in Europe.
Shortly after the takeover of MBE AG, laser technology made enormous progress. The equipment became much faster and the formation of holes,therefore, much better value. The main advantage of photovia-technology was therefore eliminated. The customer could already provide laser related circuit board designs. Since laser techniques have continued to make further progress up to the present day, photovia-technology is no longer viable in the European market. Therefore, the Ruwel Group will also increasingly use laser techniques,which have already been established in the Wetter and Pfullingen plants. Unfortunately, due to the changes in the market situation, the Gams plant which specializes in the production of photovia circuits no longer fulfil their function within the enterprise.
With these guiding decisions and immense investments, the Ruwel-Group has re-oriented its structure to the future market and customer requirements.
