Case Study – BOC Gases

Production Scale-up of Ultra High Purity Microelectronics Gases

Situation

A specialty chemical company was building a $40M green field ultra high purity microelectronics gases purification and packaging plant, representing a factor of 10X scale-up in throughput from previous facilities. The client was concerned about creeping schedule delays and cost increases shortly after the initiation of the project.

Approach

IMPACT took over the commissioning, automation, operations support, and project management of the initiative. After analyzing the project plan, IMPACT made changes enabling the plant to start operating prior to completion of all systems, allowing the plant to begin meeting revenue requirements. IMPACT also took over the specification and implementation of plant automation and developed robust control strategies for operating the purification systems. Standard, modular control software was developed to reduce cost of ownership and to give the plant a consistent interface and operating logic, reducing operator confusion and training requirements. IMPACT commissioned all corrosive systems at the plant and led plant improvements using a structured failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) framework.

Results

The plant is now fully operational and profitable. The purifier control systems developed by IMPACT are the centerpiece of customer audits.