05.06.2019

VAT Vakuumventile AG benefits from HSR students

Sennwald SG – VAT Vakuumventile AG, a supplier of vacuum valves and vacuum components, has engaged in a project partnership with the HSR University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil. Teams of students have now presented their innovative concepts for vacuum system components.

Products offered by VAT Vakuumventile AG are used in the manufacture of smartphones, cars and solar panels. The HSR University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil reported in a press release that the company is the “global market leader for vacuum valves”. In the context of a partnership between the university and the company from the St.GallenBodenseeArea, 64 HSR students worked in 12 teams to “entirely reimagine” components for vacuum systems for use in the semiconductor industry. They were tasked with developing functional prototypes.

The students have now presented their innovations to representatives from VAT. “There is no way we could have conceived in-house many of the showcased prototypes that have been imagined through this collaboration with the HSR,” said Michael Zickar, Head of Core Technology and Group Management Board member at VAT.

VAT Vakuumventile, industry partner of this year’s development project in the Mechanical Engineering | Innovation degree course at HSR, is a supplier to companies in the Silicon Valley that build production plants for chip manufacturers. These manufacturing processes must prevent friction, which would generate microparticles. “Every particle has the potential to cause damage,” explains Albert Loichinger, HSR coordinator of the project. As a result, HSR students were to guarantee absolute purity in their prototypes. Each team successfully “familiarized themselves with the technical challenges in order to ultimately came up with good solutions and transform these into functional prototypes,” said Robert Spasov, Head of Materials and Manufacturing Technology at VAT. Michael Zickar adds that the company will pursue some of the “fantastic solutions”.