VAT to roll out precision valves by April

VAT Manufacturing Malaysia Sdn Bhd is expected to roll out its first shipment of high precision valves from its factory in Penang by April next year, said VAT Vakuumventile AG chief executive officer Karl Schlegel.

Schlegel said VAT Manufacturing, which is a subsidiary of VAT Vakuumventile, had taken delivery of its new 5,000sq m factory in Batu Kawan on Nov 7.

He said production equipment were on its way to Penang by sea and would soon be installed at the factory.

“In the coming months, state-of-the-art equipment for parts manufacture, cleaning and measurement technology will be installed. Final assembly work will be done using a computer-aided assembling system. The first products should be shipped out to customers in Asia by April 2013,” Schlegel said.

He said VAT Vakuumventile developed the ergonomic workstations at the factory especially for use in Malaysia.

“Some 70 skilled employees are already being recruited for parts manufacture, quality control, assembling and logistics. They will go through our training programme beginning January next year,” he said.

Schlegel said the item which would initially be made at the factory would be the S034 vacuum valve which is used for the semiconductor industry.

“Two new high precision valve products for the semiconductor industry will be produced in Penang by the end of 2014. By that time, the production area of the plant will increase threefold,” Schlegel said.

VAT makes high precision valves for semiconductor, clean rooms and research laboratories.

VAT Vakuumventile corporate development Asia director and manager of the project Martin Hunziker said the company would probably never have come to Malaysia with- out the support from investPenang and the Malaysian Investment Development Authority.

“They helped us find the partners we needed in Penang,” he said.