Demand for Tantalum Based Electronic Components Spurs Growth for Cabot Supermetals

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Looking to capitalize on the growing tantalum based electronic parts market; Cabot Corporation (Boston, Massachusetts) has initiated a series of research, development and manufacturing programs for its Cabot Supermetals division. Earlier this year Cabot changed the name of its Cabot Performance Materials division to Cabot Supermetals. This summer, the company established a research and development office in the Business Technology Center located in Columbus Ohio. The R&D office will study tantalum based materials and thin films.

The company is also spending $12 million to outfit an existing 90,000 square foot building in nearby Etna, Ohio for a new high purity tantalum thin film manufacturing plant. The new plant will be constructed in two phases. The first phase will include the build out of office space and a clean atmosphere manufacturing area. The second phase will involve the installation of fabrication, bonding, precision machining, and cleaning equipment to manufacture high purity tantalum products such as sputtering targets and thin films. Cabot hopes to begin the first phase build out in September 2003. Phase two should begin two months later, with plant operation by the first quarter of 2004.

Tantalum metal feedstock for the new thin films plant will be supplied by a sister Cabot Supermetals plant located in Boyertown, Pennsylvania (Plant 1013758). The Boyertown plant is in the process of doubling its tantalum and niobium powder processing capabilities including the addition of a $20 million metal powders electron beam furnace addition (PEC 12002828). The division also has a plant in Japan.

Close to 65 percent of tantalum output is used in the electronics industry for the manufacture of mobile phones, laptop computers and video cameras. Tantalum is finding new uses in the manufacturing of turbine blades used in power stations and jet engines, improving the structural integrity of the blades at high temperatures. Right now the main end use for tantalum powders is in the electronics industry for tantalum capacitors, but new technology developments show a bright future for the product, including end uses in the medical industry as a prosthesis material and various aerospace applications.