Some years ago, the ozone-layer damaging chlorinated fluor carbon (CFC) materials were banned in a unison action by worldwide legis-lation. The preparations for this rule-out were the starting signal for a small German chemical specialist to develop an environment-compliant cleaning alternative. Within a relatively short time span, these CFC-free liquids turned into the leading precision-cleaning product range in the European electronics industry under the brand name Zestron. ”In the meantime, we have also become a leading global player who spends about 10% of its sales income constantly for R&D,” underlines Ralph Hoeckle, director of the Zestron Division.
The development for these CFC-free cleaning agents began back in 1989. With its semi-aqueous and water-based liquids, the O.K.Wack company has provided replacements with which all the large established chemical corporations have been successfully challenged. To sum it up: it was the right idea with the right product at the right time. And this hasn’t happened just by accident. Gifted research and development, combined with creative marketing, these are the principles of the company which at this time had 50 employees and an annual turnover of DMark 10m. This policy has resulted in a series of innovative products. To date, about 50 patents have been granted in the fields of cleaning and care supplies for the consumer area (cars, bikes, etc)and professional electronics. In the Zestron product range, patents have been granted on the unique micro-phase cleaning (MPC) technology.
The high-tech cleaning division was founded at the beginning of the 90s, followed later by Zestron Corp. in the US in 1997. The corporation serves both the American and Asian markets, based on the same high principles in user support. Moreover, the international markets have become very important, illustrated by their current sales volume of 65% with the tendency growing to 80%. ”The more complex manufacturing processes will get” Hoeckle explains, ”the more the outstanding investments in our application support will provide our customers with appropriate solutions meeting their individual cleaning requirements”.
This kind of service is offered bythe support center in the German HQs and the US center in Ashburn/Virginia with its 10 employees. ”Such service concepts need to be localized, since in the different regionswe have other strong equipment vendors, and in order to keep pace with local developments we have to use thosemachines. As a glo-bal player, we have tobe everywhere where electronics is being manufactured”. As Ralph Hoeckle further points out, all this is handled with a remarkably low count of staff of only 40 for production, application and management in Germany and America. Business overhead is managed with the resources of the mother company. For local distribution, the company co-operates with experienced sales agents in a worldwide network. With this qualified structure, Zestron provides consulting, after-sales and ongoing process support to the global industry. ”We can imagine that our next step in further business development is the foundation of our own capacity in Asia, maybe in China.”
Providing cleaning agents for electronics, Zestron has to deal with questions concerning the use of solder paste and its residues. For example, in the trend to no-clean paste the formulation is based on low-solid content. ”But users have encountered”, said Hoeckle, ”that even those soldered paste/flux mixtures often need cleaning. Most of our large customers actually use no-clean pastes. Then there are RMA (rosin-mildly activated) pastes, synthetics and many other sophisticated chemical systems. Together with leading equipment suppliers we work on the efficient application of our cleaning agents”. Another offering, for example for process monitoring, is a start-up package applied directly on the shop floor which will be sent after a certain time of use to the lab for analysis, and the results will be fed back to the customer. From this, users can see when to replenish or top-up a bath or replace it, important for quality management according to ISO 9000. In its cradle-to-grave philosophy, Zestron offers a service for exploited bath solutions and treats them in recycling procedures. ”Not all customers use this free-of-charge offer”, assumed Ralph Hoeckle, ”but in Western Europe it’s very popular”.
General manager Dr. Oskar Wack founded his company back in1975 in Ingolstadt, Southern Bavaria, known also for the headquarters of car manufacturer Audi. With Zestron, the enterprise entered the marketplace with CFC-free cleaning technology. Consequently, this has led to a remarkable growth successively, and as of today, there are 110 people employed, and the turnover has topped DM27m. One of the secrets of the success, the management says, is discovering market niches which then will become the field of intense R&D for technologically superior products. Also close co-operation with expert partners plays a decisive role in the realization of targets. The application centers with all kinds of cleaning equipment are at least as big as the production area itself. Evidently, this seems the proof that user support really does play an important role. Ralph Hoeckle resumes: ”At the end of the day, a user just wants clean parts without hassle – and that’s what Zestron wants to make sure for him”.
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