All systems go for new inkjet manufacturing plant

Buoyed by rapidly expanding demand for inkjet printer devices, a market predicted to reach inn excess of $50 billion worldwide by 2002, Xerox Europe`s new inkjet manufacturing plant at Dundalk, Ireland has reached full production and is celebrating as the 2,000,000th ink tank rolls off its production lines this week. Known as the Xerox Technology Park, the facility represents one of the largest industrial projects in Ireland.

Primary production at the site is for print heads and ink tanks for ink jet products. Today`s output of ink tanks at the site has reached 2,400 per hour across ten production lines. The site will produce almost four million tanks by the end of this year, satisfying 100 percent of Xerox` needs for the European inkjet market and 65 percent of its worldwide requirements. All ink tanks go through three-step testing before being certified as meeting Xerox`s stringent quality standards. Ink tank production is already operating on a two-shift-per-day basis and will continue this schedule until June 2001. After that, it too will move to around the clock production.

The production of print heads, the component technology that holds the tanks and controls the transfer of ink onto paper, went live in September this year. Print head manufacturing is a high precision production process and all assemblies must pass seven independent quality checks before being shipped to Xerox customers.

Print head manufacturing will move to 24 hours per day production next month to meet the demands of the very successful family of Xerox new M Series colour inkjet printers, launched in July this year.

"Xerox announced its plans to build the inkjet facility in June 1998 when this site was a green field. Now, just 18 months later, we have already produced millions of components that are helping our customers in all corners of the world print quality documents quickly and in glorious colour. The development of the site and its advanced manufacturing facilities and clean rooms has been phenomenal," says Gavin O`Brien, HR director for the Technology Park.

"As a volume manufacturing business supporting a high growth market segment, we are successfully producing tens of thousands of components every week. To support the growth in the business, we anticipate the evolution of a variety of shift patterns twenty four hours per day, seven-days a week, to meet production needs," he adds. An aggressive recruitment campaign of skilled operators is ongoing.

The facility, which is equal in size to Xerox` other European manufacturing locations in UK and the Netherlands covering 110 acres, also supports the manufacture of Xerox` high end DocuTech production printing systems, as well as printed circuit boards and wire harnesses used in Xerox products manufactured throughout the world. It also features a software development facility.

"Xerox` selection of Ireland as the location for this important facility was supported by the availability of a highly skilled workforce, a strong industrial base and good availability of suppliers specialising in high-tech/high-volume manufacturing. The facility Dundalk is already supporting Xerox strategy for renewed growth and development," concludes O`Brien.