To all: Speaking of research; Goepling(on Yahoo) had alerted folks to a recent article written about VLNC by a writer at the Belfast Telegraph on March 28th. Well....here it is, drawn from their archives:
belfasttelegraph.co.uk
All charged up and ready to go. By Maurice Neill
In static-proof safety shoes, Sam McComb shows visitors around his battery factory with pride. Just five years ago the project was 'back on the drawing board' and staff were paid off. Today, a manufacturing system for a unique product has been created from scratch and is working successfully. Valence Technology is preparing for 24-hour production.
The lightweight battery will power tomorrow's wireless communications revolution, driving the next generation of mobile telephones and computers. "This is a product of the future," says Mr McComb. Aged 51, he was born into a farming community on the outskirts of Antrim and lives near the town with his wife Ellen and two daughters. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution but left school before taking exams to become an apprentice fitter at Mackie's in Belfast. The golden age of engineering was drawing to a close and holding down a job in one of Northern Ireland's most sought after work places was not an easy task.
"I learned how to work on the farm and how to survive in Mackie's." He studied mechanical engineering at Belfast Technical College and developed a taste for the factory floor at a time when Northern Ireland's big industrial plants were closing down in record numbers. He was offered a post as a project engineer at GEC in Larne where he worked on the production of equipment for a proposed power station at Camlough in Co Down. Later, he joined Turner's Building Products as a works engineer. The firm forged a reputation for the supply of asbestos building materials, but it did not save the business from closure in the 1980 recession and he found himself on a redundancy list at the age of 31.
Opportunity arose to join the Invercon paper mill in Larne, best known as the producer of Inversoft toilet tissue. He started as works engineer and rose to become production manager of the largest paper recycling plant in Ireland.
Mr McComb was the first person to join the staff and the last person to leave at the Swaddlers plant in Antrim in 1987. The business, the brainchild of entrepreneur Harry Swaddle from Whitley Bay in England, manufactured disposable nappies for a range of clients including Marks & Spencer and Safeway. He split his time with a sister factory in England but found himself redundant again in 1988. He spent a year at generator manufacturer FG Wilson in Newtownabbey, and served a further term at the troubled paper mill and at expanding food business Moy Park before joining the Valence project where he is general manager. He has picked up qualifications in accountancy, industrial management and business studies along the way.
The Valence project is typical of the 'high risk' industrial investments Northern Ireland attracted during the Troubles. Its Irish-American backers accepted a œ25m package from the Industrial Development Board after a bidding war with the Industrial Development Agency in the Republic. The project, to manufacture a lightweight battery for mobile telephones, was announced by Secretary of State Patrick Mayhew in 1993 and promised a œ76m factory employing 660 people within five years. Valence said it had secured a contract to supply Motorola - one of the world's largest manufacturers of mobile phones. The project was assessed by the IDB in just six weeks. One of Valence's main backers Carl Berg was a man with a reputation for 'big rewards and big risks' in the electronics industry. South Antrim MP Clifford Forsythe welcomed the project but Alliance's Sean Neeson called for close monitoring. Production was scheduled to begin in January 1994, but in August the company told the stock exchange the product was 'back on the drawing board' at research facilities in Nevada. Motorola was gone and Every Ready was to become a partner. Valence revealed global losses of $$30m in February 1995 and 26 engineers on the payroll in Northern Ireland were paid off.
However, a breakthrough in technology came in 1996 and the project began recruiting key personnel again in preparation for production start-up in June 1997. The payroll had risen to 200 by the time the first œ1m order was announced in November 1999 and Valence secured more than $$30m from investors on the US stock market before the year was out.
Six months ago its share price was just $$4 but it has risen to more than $$40 as investors gain new confidence in hi-tech stocks. Today the plant at Mallusk employs 240 and is adding another 28,000 sq ft of floor space in preparation for round-the-clock production. Employment is expected to rise to around 400 people with a wide range of skills. "One of the last problems is convincing the scientists to let go of the project and hand it over to the engineers," says Mr McComb.
The factory imports the raw materials and chemicals for battery production and turns out a finished and packaged product at the end of the line. Much of the process is shrouded in secrecy because it is at the cutting edge of the technology. The Valence battery can be made in a variety of sizes and shapes ready for installation in the new generation of light and small mobile telephones, electronic notebooks and laptop computers. Its main market is the United States, but a sister plant is under construction in Korea to service the Asian market and the technology may be licensed to other battery makers around the world. But, says Mr McComb, "the business was created here and is anchored here." Much of the machinery on the production line was custom-made in Northern Ireland.
The engineering problems have been conquered but there are human problems to solve. When Mr McComb began his career apprentices had difficulty finding a job. Today Valence has problems recruiting both highly-skilled people and engineering apprentices. "Around 30% of the staff are highly skilled people with third level qualifications. We employ graduates with PhD's in electro-chemistry, production engineers and sweepers-up. "However, people with the hands-on technical skills are hard to come by.
"In many ways we have lived off the backs of the industries which have closed down. At Valence we have to rectify that and look to the long term. I want to give graduates and engineering apprentices a start and an industry-based training."
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John~ |
