For many years, the semiconductor industry has been successfully using diaphragm valves from the GEMÜ CleanStar series all over the world. GEMÜ customers appreciate the advantages of the design and the multitude of possible applications due to the sophisticated graduation of actuator sizes 1 to 3. Now, the valve specialist is expanding its GEMÜ CleanStar family with actuator size 4 and thus setting standards in terms of footprint and flow.
The semiconductor industry’s requirements for valve designs are constantly growing. Ever-smaller structures on the microchips require fluids of maximum purity that are free of particles. The required quantity of process media has simultaneously increased over the past years due to wafer diameters becoming larger. GEMÜ takes both of these developments into account with the launch of the new actuator size. The new actuator size 4 is available in nominal sizes 1½” and 2″, and the media wetted parts are made of PFA and PTFE TFMTM. This combination allows large media quantities to be transported and ultra-pure valve designs to be used even at the supply and distribution level of semiconductor production. The compact GEMÜ CleanStar design simultaneously ensures an excellent flow/footprint ratio and will replace the GEMÜ 600 HP and GEMÜ 677 HP/HPW diaphragm valves in the future.
The advantages of the GEMÜ CleanStar series are numerous. The central union nut creates a reliable joint between the actuator and valve body and does so completely without the use of metal parts. The weir design (weir style) ensures low-stress media channeling, minimizes dead legs, and does not specify a flow direction. The exterior parts display very good chemical resistance due to the use of PVDF. A leak detection hole and slotted holes for flexible installation of the valves are already integrated into the body design. The series also has a position indicator as standard. All these advantages have been adopted when it comes to the scale on the new actuator size 4. Thanks to the larger nominal sizes, GEMÜ is already harnessing all named product advantages for its customers at the supply and distribution level (facility and sub-fab) of semiconductor production.
