Applied Materials begins shipments of world's largest, fastest, roll-to-roll vacuum coating systems

ALZENAU, GERMANY: Applied Materials Inc. has begun shipping multiple Applied Topmet 4450 systems, the world's largest and fastest, roll-to-roll thin film metal deposition machine, to a customer in Europe.

This latest model of Applied’s Topmet 4450 product line deposits ultra-thin aluminum films on 4.5m (15 feet) wide rolls of substrate material at a remarkable 20 meters per second (45 miles per hour) to provide a barrier against oxygen, moisture and ultra-violet radiation for flexible packaging applications.

New technology advances in the system produce state-of-the-art film quality while doubling the coated area output to drive down coated film production cost by more than 20 percent.

“We are excited about the growth potential of the roll-to-roll equipment business for flexible packaging as well as emerging applications such as flexible electronics, displays and solar,” said James Robson, vice president and general manager of Applied’s Glass and Web Product Group.

“The expanded Topmet 4450 system builds on 50 years of leadership in roll-to-roll machine design, with almost 600 systems installed worldwide, and also reflects Applied Materials’ extensive expertise in scaling up complex manufacturing equipment and processes.”

The new Topmet 4450 system is considerably faster than competing systems. It not only provides direct cost savings, but also enables higher material yield, simplified downstream processing, reduced labor requirements and a smaller factory footprint.

The system’s efficient use of power and raw materials, enabled by advanced high rate evaporation sources, closed-loop automatic layer control and high performance pumping systems, results in lower operating costs. In addition, an award winning real-time layer thickness monitoring system enables consistent coating uniformity while the novel uniform-tension roller design provides high speed, wrinkle-free material handling.

“We are proud to support our customers’ drive to lower production costs through our continuous system innovation,” said John Busch, head of Applied’s Web Coating Group.

“With this system, we boosted output, lowered operating expense and maintained quality – making the industry-leading thin film metallization systems even better. Applied will continue to earn its leadership position in vacuum coating production solutions with innovative products and superior customer support.”