Although his time was brief, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy took a quick tour of ASML in Wilton on Monday, April 15, and spoke to employees, praising them and the company for their work and the facility’s expansion project.
“Thank you for making a big commitment to Connecticut in advanced manufacturing,” Murphy told several hundred ASML employees gathered in the company’s cafeteria.
Murphy was shown some of the new construction at the high-tech semiconductor facility on a tour led by Bill Amalfitano, vice president of ASML’s Wilton factory, and Louis Lu, vice president of engineering.
The 297,000-square-foot facility in Wilton is in the midst of a $100-million expansion project, featuring new office space, manufacturing and engineering space, and construction of a parking garage which opened in February.
Murphy got a peek at the company’s new Clean Room, a sterile area 100-percent free of contamination where computer chips are tested.
Last fall, ASML also opened a new 7,600-square-foot testing facility down the street from the main plant.
The Dutch company now employs more than 1,600 workers at its Wilton facility at 77 Danbury Road, up by more than 400 employees since the two-year expansion project began last year.
“The assets of the company are the people who work here,” Amalfitano said, while introducing Murphy to employees.
Calling himself a “proponent of fair and free trade,” Murphy expressed support for the creation of more advanced manufacturing jobs and tech education. “We need to make quicker, cheaper, direct pathways to the workplace,” he said.
