The 5th expansion work of Horiba Stec’s Aso Plant has completed. With this expansion the output capacity of mass flow controller of the core product will get doubled.

Aso Plant was opened in September 1988, and it was followed by the second expansion as the core MFC plant in February 1992 and the third expansion in October 2005.　　 In the subsequent fourth expansion, more space was provided including the production line for not only MFC, but also the fluid supply system of Horiba, the chemical concentration system, the reticle testing device, products for the medical field and compact blood testing device.

The buildings of the first and second expansions, as well as employees’ houses were struck by the Kumamoto Earthquake which occurred on April 14 and 16. However these were recovered in only two weeks, and a record-high output of MFC could be attained in June. Then in response to the rapidly growing demand of MFC, the company decided to expand facilities.

The construction work for expansion started in February 2017 and the building completed in December 2017. It was followed by conditioning of personnel arrangement and production line and now in operation.

A new building having a total area of 7,000 m2 was constructed on the neighboring land of the current plant having a total floor area of 13,000 m2, making an overall floor area of 20,000 m2 (1.5 times). The clean room was also expanded to 1.7 times totaling to 2,550 thousand m2. The existing MFC production line is integrated into the new building and expanded to have an upgraded production method which is well responsive to diversified types and variable quantities.

With the establishment of an integrated production line from receiving of materials to shipping of products, the production capacity of MFC units has been doubled. The total investment amounted to JPY2.7 billion. For reference, the total units were 350,000 consisting of 170,000 and of Kyoto Plant and 180 thousand of Aso Plant (as of May).