Ireland’s flag carrier airline, Aer Lingus is one of the lead investors in a $14m scheme to kick off a new business in Dublin coating the interiors of computer cabinets to make them resistant to radio frequency interference using a German technology called vacuum metalising. The unnamed company, in which the Irish government hopes other state companies will also take holdings, is acquiring rights to the process from the German originators GFO, part of the Degusa Group. One of the German’s key customers is Apple Computer whose European computer plant in Cork is supplied directly from Germany while its American requirements are met by a GFO operation in California. Aer Lingus and its other active partner, the Irish moulding maker Plastronix, hope to take over Apple’s local business from the Germans, get other multinationals manufacturing in Ireland to take the product, and also do some export work. The Irish entrepreneurs plan to be up and running early next year, creating 60 new jobs.
