U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., slipped on a safety vest and hard hat for a Tuesday afternoon tour of EMD Electronics in Rush Township.

It was his first visit to the Hometown facility, where 375 employees manufacture specialty gases for the semiconductor industry.

“It’s really interesting to learn the connection between what you do and semiconductor manufacturing,” Casey said to plant officials. “It’s really vital to our future.”

Casey was shuttled to see parts of the plant, which opened with 40 employees as Air Products and Chemicals in October 1973 in an otherwise sleepy part of Hometown. Its property lines have grown to include 370 acres, 60 of which contain the plant, making it the world’s largest integrated specialty gas manufacturer. EMD’s customers include Samsung, Intel and others.

“It’s remarkable that right here in Schuylkill County that you have a world-class manufacturing facility, which is producing gases that allow us to be a world leader in semiconductors,” Casey said following his tour. “This manufacturing process leads directly to that.”

Casey called EMD’s employees “highly skilled.”

“It is a workforce that not only the people of Schuylkill County can be proud of but the whole state can be proud of,” he said. “You’ve got world class manufacturing happening right here that is connected to one of our major national priorities, which is we have to continue to be a leader in semiconductors. There’s no choice about that.”

Casey mentioned the 2022 bipartisan passage of the CHIPS and Sciences Act, which calls for investments to boost production of American-made semiconductors.

“For a while there, we were the undisputed leader in semiconductor manufacturing around the world,” he said.

At some point, he said, the United States fell behind.

“That was part of the real impetus to pass CHIPS and Sciences,” he said, in hopes that the country would regain its lead - or at least increase its production.

“I think most people take it for granted, but virtually everything we own, and things we rely upon everyday - whether it’s a cellphone or refrigerator” use semiconductors, Casey said.

In addition to taking a van tour, EMD site director Karl Nolte and other officials welcomed Casey to a control room where NF3 gas is manufactured. The specialty gas is among those used in etching and cleaning processes to create semiconductor wafers.

Almost a year ago, Gov. Josh Shapiro visited EMD to announce a $300 million investment that would create more jobs along with a new 96,000-square-foot facility.

The new facility will allow EMD Electronics to meet surging demand in the electronics and semiconductor industries by doubling the production capacity of tungsten hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride, critical components in semiconductor manufacturing.

EMD Electronics, the North American electronics business of Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany, manufactures chemical-mechanical planarization slurries, ultrathin dielectric and metal precursors of film, formulated cleans and etching products, and delivery equipment for the semiconductor and electronics display industries.