As a member of the Fujikin Group, Carten Controls designs, manufactures and supplies high-performance valves and flow solutions for ultra-high-purity systems. Declan Irish, managing director of Carten, spoke with Bridges.
Bridges: Bring us up to date on Carten Controls’ business in 2022.
Irish: Semiconductor-grade materials are at a premium today and our main challenge has been to ramp up our manufacturing capabilities to satisfy global demand. We have been successful this year and will increase our shipments by approximately 60% by the end of 2022 and future growth looks strong.
What industries do you serve and what opportunities do you see for further growth?
Carten has developed off-site manufacturing capabilities at our Waterford, Ireland, facilities that allow many critical processes to be manufactured off-site, such as flow-control systems which are traditionally manufactured during semiconductor facility builds.
Combined with Carten’s high-capacity valves, also manufactured at Waterford, we provide greater ultra-pure gas flow to the larger microchip production and fabrication facilities. This distinguishes us from our competitors.
Performing key assembly and fusion processes at Carten reduces qualification and validation times. Carten has implemented the same model in the bioprocessing industry, particularly in the area of single-use technologies (SUT).
With the Fujikin Group acquiring Carten Controls in 1991, what strengths does the company have today?
Headquartered in Osaka, the Fujikin Group is one of the leading flow-control system manufacturers in the world. Cutting-edge industries, such as hydrogen fuel cell technologies, nano-picotechnology and medical devices using ionizing and nonionizing radiation, drive the Fujikin Group’s vision to be an industry leader.
Carten and Fujikin have realized successful synergies and we combine product offerings across international markets and add value by licensing Fujikin technologies. In bioprocessing, Carten has taken a lead in SUT with the Fujikin Group providing sales and global distribution support.
How would you describe the relationship between Japan and Ireland?
Yet while Ireland is an island to the extreme west of Europe and the Japanese islands are located on the extreme east of Asia, our cultures are close in terms of our dedication to achievement, positive outlook and sense of humor.
