Daily News Briefs

ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. announced that an automotive component manufacturer has placed orders for turnkey automation systems, valued at a total of $13.2 million, to be used at several of its worldwide facilities, and expects additional orders later this summer, for a combined value of approximately $4.7 million. The customer placed $8.8 million in orders earlier this year. ATS will design and build the systems, which will be used for automated assembly, test and machining, at numerous ATS facilities -- including its plants in Ontario, Ohio and Singapore -- over the next nine months. The orders include manufacturing systems for different components and vehicle platforms. Deliveries are scheduled to the end of April 2004. . . . Adept Technology Inc., a Livermore, Calif.-based manufacturer of flexible automation for the semiconductor, electronics, fiber optic, telecommunications and life sciences industries, announced that MSP Corp., of Minneapolis, Minn., has selected it to provide automated wafer handling and wafer sorting for its high-performance particle deposition tool, MSP 2300XP2. The Adept FFE flexible front-end platform includes integrated robots, controls, software and clean air system technology and was developed to meet the requirements specified by MSP.