Edwards

Linde and CCMP Capital (2006-2014)

Linde AG purchased BOC in 2006 for €12.4 billion, selling Edwards to CCMP Capital and its Asian fund in 2007 for US$901 million. Edwards was renamed Edwards Group Ltd, and then Edwards Group plc. A new, Cayman Island-based holding company called Edwards Group Ltd was listed on NASDAQ in 2012 via ADS under the ticker symbol EVAC, with a US$100 million IPO. It was delisted in 2014 when Atlas Copco purchased the operating subsidiary Edwards Ltd for £1 billion.

Manufacturing sites were opened in 2011 in the Czech Republic for the industrial, pharmaceutical, chemical, and scientific markets while manufacturing sites for the semiconductor market were opened in South Korea. Most of Edwards' UK manufacturing capacity was moved, with abatement systems remaining in Clevedon, completing plans proposed under BOC in 2005.

Edwards was awarded its seventh Queen's Award in 2012, and acquired USA-based Gamma Vacuum in 2013, maintaining the brand until this day. Gamma Vacuum specialises in ion and titanium sublimation pumps, with customers mainly in the scientific industry.

Atlas Copco (2014-present)

The Atlas Copco Group, a Swedish multinational industrial company, acquires Edwards Vacuum.

Edwards purchased Brooks Automation's CTI-Cryogenics and Polycold branded cryopump operations based in Chelmsford and Monterrey for US$675 million in 2018. In 2019, Edwards marked its 100th anniversary. Its new North America Semiconductor Technology Centre in Hillsboro opened in the same year. Edwards joined MIT.nano as a founding member, following its completion in 2018. MIT.nano is a 214,000-square-foot laboratory dedicated to the characterisation and fabrication of nanoscale materials, structures, devices, and processes. In 2020, the company opened a new Service Technology Centre in Dublin.

In 2022, Edwards invested in a new facility to manufacture products for the semiconductor industry in Arizona, USA.

During the same year, Edwards acquired Ceres Technologies, Inc.. Ceres is a US-based manufacturer and designer of gas and vapour delivery equipment for the semiconductor industry. It also purchased HHV Pumps Pvt Ltd, a designer and manufacturer of vacuum pumps located in Bengalaru, India, for £10.9 million. Atlas Copco also agreed to purchase the assets of Chinese, liquid ring vacuum pump manufacturer Shandong Jinggong Pump Co Ltd, to join the Edwards vacuum pump business.

1970s

The scientific and medical markets have always been important for Edwards. The introduction of X-ray technology required the use of a vacuum. Vacuum technology also played an important role in the development of neuroimaging (brain scanners), like MRI, CT, and PET scanners.

The first home computers were brought to the market in the 1970s and the development of computer technology has been unstoppable ever since. The mass production of CRT displays and integrated circuits necessitated electronic companies to scale up, with vacuum installations becoming bigger and demand for vacuum purity increasing.

In the 1970s, Edwards Vacuum also collaborated with Seiko Seiki for the invention of magnetically suspended turbopumps. These molecular turbopumps use magnetically levitated bearings, which eliminate the risk of vacuum contamination, require less maintenance, and feature lower noise and vibration levels. This type of technology is particularly suitable for scientific applications and the harsh processes in semiconductor manufacturing.

The newly emerged dry pumps and turbomolecular pumps supported innovation in the scientific instrument markets over the next couple of decades. The scientific instrument market is now the second biggest market for Edwards Vacuum, after the semiconductor and electronics industry.

1980s

The compact disk was invented in the 1980s, initially to store and play digital audio recordings but a few years later also as general data storage. Vacuum is used for the metallization of CD surfaces.

In 1984, Edwards' Henry Wycliffe invented the Drystar roots/claw dry pump, patented by Edwards. The Drystar was a positive-displacement roots/claw pump that does not require oil for lubrication. The semiconductor industry in particular moved away quickly from oil-sealed pumps in favour of the new dry pumps. In the harsh semiconductor processes, oil-sealed pumps required frequent servicing and oil changes: this new dry pump technology enabled more complex production processes in the semiconductor industry.

1990s

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change came into force in 1994, driving the need for environmental solutions in the electronics industry. Two years prior, in 1992, Edwards Vacuum had acquired a small start-up company specialising in the abatement of semiconductor process exhaust gases, allowing for a more environmentally friendly manufacturing process of semiconductors.

Recent

Flat-screen display technology began in the 2000s, replacing the cathode-ray tube displays of the previous century. In the years that followed, technology evolved and displays became increasingly thinner, higher in resolution and larger. As a result, the required composite structures become increasingly complex, and the manufacturing methods became more demanding. Edwards Vacuum is involved in flat-screen display production with its turbomolecular pumps, which enable the high levels of vacuum required for the production process and coating of these displays. Abatement installations remove global warming, toxic, pyrophoric, and corrosive gases in a safe, regulatory way.

Vacuum coating is used in other industries, including solar cell photovoltaics. They are produced with processes such as crystalline silicon, CdTe, CIGS, or Silicon Thin Film Technology, all of which require vacuum. Lithium-ion batteries are a rapidly growing market, that also requires large amounts of vacuum in various stages of their production.

Edwards CTI-Cryogenics and Edwards Polycold cryopumps and cryochillers play their role in cryogenic fields: MRI machines that uses liquid helium and require cryogenic cooling, storage of large quantities of food, freezing of blood and tissues samples, and semiconductors, as their technology and structures become more complex.

Hoffman alleged Edwards employed monopoly practices in breach of the Sherman Act because it had 70% share of the integrated vacuum pump frame systems market in the US and suppressed competition, imposing non-compete covenants on its suppliers and engaged in employee intimidation; customer threats, and bad faith litigation.

In May 2021, Edwards was granted a partial, interim injunction against Hoffman selling a bellows component. Judgement declined to accept Edwards' application of Noerr–Pennington doctrine to dismiss Hoffman's anti competition counterclaim.

In June 2022, the parties entered into a Confidential Settlement Agreement through which both parties' claims were dismissed with prejudice.