Leister inside: 50,000 m2 floor laid for Intel in Vietnam

Vietnam is an up-and-coming country. Competitive personnel costs and an interesting tax environment are key factors in attracting foreign investors here. At the same time, the domestic market is becoming ever more appealing. All of these reasons made Vietnam interesting as a production location for the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer Intel. With its sales partner "Dong Loi Equipment & Service Co. Ltd", Leister has had a local presence for a number of years and is well placed for the future. 

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Gigantic Floor 
The general economic framework in Vietnam is particularly attractive for corporations operating internationally. It will therefore come as no surprise that Intel singled out Ho Chi Minh City as a location for its huge production plant. Intel is extending its production facilities on a large scale here for around 300 million US$. The gigantic floor in the largest building measures 50 000 m2. As already the case on the flat roof, machines made by Leister were also used for this complex interior work.

Royal floor covering 
"Timeless performance in areas of application with unique requirements". These are the words used by the market leader to describe the floor coverings, Armstrong, the "Royal ESD" vinyl covering (ESD = electrostatic discharge). In its tender, Intel had specified the use of this floor covering specially for the work areas of the microelectronics production. Besides discharge capacity, the site insulation of the floor covering was also required. "Royal ESD" can be worked tremendously well with floor machines made by Leister.

Cooperation welded together 
Leister has an experienced sales partner on site in Vietnam in the form of Dong Loi Equipment & Service Co. Ltd. "The good collaboration when working on the flat roof meant it wasn't difficult for us to opt for Leister machines again for the floor", states Senior Project Manager, Carlos Smollen of AIM ProTech. As a result, the Vietnamese entrepreneur came to work with machines made by Leister for the second time.To this end, the AIM ProTech project team around Vo Minh Chuong (Project Manager) and Pham Cao Hieu (Site Manager) as well as the entire laying team received training in the Leister floor machines UNIFLOOR E, GROOVER and TRIAC S.

Requirements more than fulfilled 
The gigantic dimensions of the factory building called for the appropriate equipment. After cleaning the floor thoroughly, copper strips were first bonded to the floor so as to improve the electrostatic discharge. The "Royal ESD" floor covering was then laid out. After laying, precise, kilometre-long grooves were grooved into the floor using the powerful grooving machine GROOVER at the joints.

Unending weld seams 
The filler rod was then welded into these grooves with the UNIFLOOR E at up to 7.5 m/min. Thanks to the electronic control of these hot-air welding machines, the mains fluctuations which occurred could be compensated and perfect, homogenous weld seams achieved. Without electronic control, the speed and dependent weld quality can vary. The proven TRIAC S was utilised for the subsequent detail work. As with all Leister hand welding tools, a broad range of high-quality welding nozzles is also available here.

Efficient work made easy 
A short training is all that is needed to start perfect welding with Leister machines, thanks to the intuitive operation. The powerful drive and sophisticated control in the machines allow efficient and clean work. The products prove their high quality in continuous use – as here too in Vietnam, where extreme outside conditions predominate. After completing the work, the AIM ProTech workers told just how impressed they were at how easy it was to use the Leister floor machines and achieve really high welding quality

Building owner : Intel
Floor covering : Royal ESD von Armstrong
Plastic welding devices : Leister Process Technologies
Laying out company: AIM ProTech
Sales and service partner: Dong Loi Equipment & Service Co. Ltd.

Text : Christophe von Arx, Thomas Gisler, Leister Process Technologies
Photos : Carlos Smollen, AIM ProTech, Dong Loi / Roland von Ah, Leister Process Technologies