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50 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2025 Fortin Industries subsidiary was acquired. eir Sylmar, California, plant was closed down in 1994, which also marked the end of Fortin flexible laminates. e Pendleton, South Carolina plant was the key target of this acquisition, which housed a 20-opening, 4-up press—at that time, the big- gest FR-4 laminate press in the world. I still remember my first time in that factory, look- ing at this monster of a laminate press. In 1992, a new copper foil plant being opened in Camden, South Carolina, under the name of Oak-Mitsui. In fact, it was the announced clo- sure of this plant at the end of 2024 by the subse- quent owner Nippon Denkai which prompted me to write this article. Due to growing demand in ailand, Allied- Signal built an FR-4 plant there in 1994. e Korean JV Doosan Electro-Materials opened its Iksan plant in 1996 to expand the production of phenolic paper copper-clad lam- inates. When the engineering director visited our factory in Germany some time before that year, he told us that under his supervision, a 33-opening 3-up laminate press was being built for the Iksan plant. We expressed our doubts because at that time robust laminate presses in Asia were supplied by European and Taiwanese press manufacturers. When I met this director 20 years later, whilst he was working as a con- sultant for Korea Taconic, he proudly told me that "his press" was still running smoothly. e growth of China and the start of shi- ing PCB production from Taiwan to China also meant that domestically manufactured FR-4 was needed. erefore, AlliedSignal Laminate Systems in 1996 built a factory in Suzhou. AlliedSignal Laminate Systems ASLS was now the world's biggest FR-4 laminate man- ufacturer. No other competitor had a similar production capacity of FR-4 rigid board, thin laminates, and prepregs on three continents. Naturally, the growth of AlliedSignal Lami- nates Systems also saw some divestments: Figure 3: In 1996, a new FR-4 factory was opened in Suzhou, China.