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Server Time:
2024-05-12 06:47:22
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 Ben Cooper
 
Location: Scotland
 |  |  | The White Elephant - Chip Fab Plant, Scotland
< on 6/21/2010 9:38 PM >
|  | | | Semiconductors were meant to be the saviour of Scottish industry – we were told not to worry too much about the death of heavy industry because the future was in high-tech. Politicians had great fun talking about Silicon Glen, boasting about all the electronics companies who were setting up factories in Scotland, and not mentioning the huge government subsidies offered to these companies.
Then the dream went wrong. IBM had been in Greenock since the 1950s but moved manufacturing abroad and closed the factory. Other factories closed. Then there’s this, known locally as the White Elephant. Hyundai spent £2.4bn building this state-of-the-art semiconductor plant in 1999, but they got cold feet after a downturn in the market and sold it to Motorola a year later for £880m. Four years later, it passed to Freescale, a division of Motorola. By 2008, there were claims that it had been sold again, but it still stands unused – having never made a single microchip.
Lights are on, things are humming, but nobody’s home:
After a quick look at the ground level, it was up to the third floor. The plant seems to be built on three levels – the clean room on the top floor, the middle floor for fans and air conditioning systems, and the heavy power and large air ducts on the ground floor. This is the clean room, with antistatic flooring:
The clean room is surrounded by access space, with huge ducts for air conditioning.
Off to one side is the offices and admin block. This is the glass block in the first picture.
Down one floor, and loads of power systems to run the massive air conditioning. Most of this equipment is still waiting to be installed – at one point I spent five minutes walking past pallet after pallet after pallet of fans. Then the same with power control boards. There really is an immense amount of brand new equipment left here.
The giant red tubes running everywhere aren’t water or gas – they’re high voltage copper. Next, over a connecting bridge to the power plant.
Four brand new gas boilers – for steam heating, I presume, as there was no sign of generators.
A big long row of giant centrifugal coolers.
Then back to the ground floor of the main block, and signs that lots of the brand new equipment is up for sale – auctioneers stickers cover much of it.
Loads more, as usual, in my Flickr set...
http://www.transientplaces.co.uk |
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MikeEBike
Location: Ottawa
Gender: Male
| | Re: The White Elephant - Chip Fab Plant, Scotland
<Reply # 1 on 6/22/2010 12:07 AM >
| | | | Cool ! What a waste !
I'm suddenly reminded of a few things I've bought that were never used; the billions wasted here put that in perspective.
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cjb
     
Location: Sept-îles/Saint-John's/Corner Brooks/Montréal/Sydney
Gender: Male
| | | Re: The White Elephant - Chip Fab Plant, Scotland
<Reply # 2 on 6/22/2010 5:48 AM >
| | | | Stunning location man. Bring us more of these unused 'high-tech' factories please.
That's my favorite kind of location!!
http://www.magazin...dossiers/index.htm |
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TurboZutek
King Dick
Location: Scotland
Gender: Male
Giant octo-penised rapephant
| |  | | Re: The White Elephant - Chip Fab Plant, Scotland
<Reply # 3 on 6/22/2010 11:03 AM >
| | | | Reminds me of CPT - god that was a huge waste of Scottish Money as well, though at least they managed to actually manufacture something there for a few minutes.
Chris..
We all had ostriches. My dad had an ostrich farm! I remember one day someone came in and said the high altitude bombing of Kosovo had been a limited success, so we all went out and celebrated… by killing an ostrich and boiling it in kiwi fruit. |
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Ben Cooper
Location: Scotland
| | | Re: The White Elephant - Chip Fab Plant, Scotland
<Reply # 4 on 6/22/2010 12:41 PM >
| | | | That was the cathode ray tube factory? Yes, that was clever - build a massive plant to make CRTs just as everyone is going to flat panel LCDs.
http://www.transientplaces.co.uk |
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TurboZutek
King Dick
Location: Scotland
Gender: Male
Giant octo-penised rapephant
| | | | Re: The White Elephant - Chip Fab Plant, Scotland
<Reply # 5 on 6/22/2010 1:35 PM >
| | | | Posted by Ben Cooper
That was the cathode ray tube factory? Yes, that was clever - build a massive plant to make CRTs just as everyone is going to flat panel LCDs.
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That's the one - we had a look in there a week before they gutted it and turned it into office space. It looked (just like this one here) that no expense had been spared in the construction.
The sad thing was, the plant could have been swapped over to manufacture LCD's very easily - all the line equipment was modular. I guess it was just too good an excuse to cut and run for the Chinese!
Our tax £ hard at work!
Chris...
We all had ostriches. My dad had an ostrich farm! I remember one day someone came in and said the high altitude bombing of Kosovo had been a limited success, so we all went out and celebrated… by killing an ostrich and boiling it in kiwi fruit. |
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decrepitude
Location: Norcal
Gender: Male
| | Re: The White Elephant - Chip Fab Plant, Scotland
<Reply # 6 on 6/22/2010 4:09 PM >
| | | | I find it humourously ironic that the most use this building has ever seen is someone infiltrating and getting some sweet shots.
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consecrated
Location: Connecticut
Gender: Male
Æthereal
| | | Re: The White Elephant - Chip Fab Plant, Scotland
<Reply # 7 on 6/23/2010 11:44 AM >
| | | | Very cool. Pretty rare find.
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