(3 Day) Fire at Japanese semi fab affects audio makers

[Jay Ashworth]

Recording - Mixonline

Once is an accident.
Twice is a coincidence.

Three times is enemy action.

 

[DrewE]

Having worked for a number of years at a semiconductor fab, here in Vermont, I'm not at all surprised it took three days to put the fire out. There are many, many nasty chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing, and in non-trivial quantities.

I am a little bit surprised that the company had no second-source fabs for their products. Perhaps the analog line processing is unusual and not readily done by standard digital CMOS fab lines (at least without additional equipment, etc.). In general, trusting a sole source for vital electronic components, or other parts for that matter, is not an especially wise move if it can possibly be avoided.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Reminds me of the magnesium foundry explosion here in Michigan in 2018 that crippled international supply chains and effected Big 3 production for a while. Emergency machinists and riggers were brought in to get important equipment out and operational at other facilities as quickly as possible. Its always amazing how unnoticed these lynchpins are until disaster strikes.

"Ford was able to resume production because it relocated some still-usable tooling from the Michigan plant to a Meridian Magnesium Products plant in Nottingham, England. Ford and Meridian transferred 19 dies from damaged plant to the U.K. operation. "

Ford Recovers, Mag Diecastings Back in Production

The F-150 and Super Duty pickup trucks are back in production after the automaker coordinated an effort to recover tooling dies from a severely damaged Michigan plant.

www.foundrymag.com