Zestron is a global manufacturer of cleaning agents and services for the SMT and semiconductor backend industry. The company provides customers with full cleaning process solutions in terms of chemistry and cleaning equipment. Its services are divided into three main categories, the process development, process optimization and analytic inspection. Ralph Hoeckle, Managing Director at Zestron, explains the company’s services and philosophy.
Zestron is a manufacturer of cleaning media for the high-end electronics industry. However, you do not only sell cleaning agents. How would you describe your company’s philosophy?
Zestron has always seen itself as an architect of cleaning processes. This means that we do not just develop and produce cleaning agents, but regard our main object as offering support services to the customer from cradle to grave. When a customer is looking for a new cleaning process, we support him in choosing his cleaning process (cleaning equipment and cleaning agent) according to his requirements, assist him during the implementation and offer him after sales services such as process check up, bath monitoring, etc. Thereby, Zestron ensures that the customer gets a stable cleaning process.
Which products and services can customers expect from Zestron?
Zestron is a global manufacturer of cleaning agents for the SMT and semiconductor backend industry. We offer the full bandwidth of cleaners – solvents, semi-aqueous and water-based agents – and cover the entire SMT production process from the cleaning of high-performance modules and printed circuit board assemblies to the cleaning of stencils and tools.
Our services are divided into three main categories, the process development, process optimization and analytic inspection. Process development is a service dedicated to customers looking for a new cleaning process. Process optimization on the other hand is dedicated to customers, who already have a cleaning process. There are various problems, which customers may face with an existing process, such as new regulations, which the customer has to comply with or new solder materials that have to be used. Such reasons may require an optimization and Zestron’s engineers assist the customer in defining the new parameter settings to ensure optimal results. In terms of analytic inspection, customers can expect cleanliness qualification according to international standards, such as IPC or specific military norms, and climatic reliability testing.
You will also highlight your competence and experience in process development and support at SMT Nuremberg this year. How do you help customers to define their individual cleaning process?
Zestron invites all customers, who are looking for a new cleaning process, to one of its three Technical Centers, where they have the possibility to conduct cleaning trials free of charge under real life conditions on production machines guaranteeing that “what you see is what you get”. With such trials, our engineers help the customers to find the right combination of cleaning equipment and chemistry for their individual requirements. Each customer is supported by one of our experienced process engineers, who assists the customer and verifies the cleaning results directly after the trials in Zestron’s Analytical Centers to see, if the cleanliness requirements of the customer are met. Thereby, customers can get an overview on suitable cleaning equipment and cleaning agents in just one day.
You just mentioned the three Technical and Analytical Centers of Zestron. Where are they located and what do customers have to expect?
The Technical and Analytical Centers of Zestron are located in Ingolstadt, Germany, in Manassas, USA and in Shanghai, China, ensuring support for customers from all three continents. Zestron’s Technical Centers feature altogether over 35 different cleaning machines from international leading equipment manufacturers, which are available for cleaning trials. The most important aspect is that we cooperate independently with these equipment manufacturers. This ensures, that the customers get an independent and objective recommendation from our process engineers. The Analytical Centers provide all necessary equipment to conduct cleanliness qualification according to international standards. Customers can rely on the extensive process and analytical know-how of our process engineers.
Which are the main criteria that Zestron focuses on when developing or optimizing a cleaning process?
The most important aspects for us are quality, reliability and cost efficiency. When customers need to implement a new cleaning process, the results have to meet a certain customer specific quality level. Furthermore, the cleaning results have to be reproducible and therefore, the process has to provide high reliability. However, the process costs should not be forgotten. The costs for the process implementation as well as the running costs have a great influence on the customers’ decision.
How do you ensure that these three aspects are achieved for every customer?
Whenever a customer turns to us, we help him to develop his new cleaning process. As the cleaning trials in our Technical Center are conducted on production machines under real life conditions, we can ensure that the combination of cleaning equipment and cleaning agent, which we recommend to the customer, provides reproducible results.
To ensure that the quality of the cleaning trials meet the customers’ requirements, Zestron’s process engineers test cleaned parts directly after the cleaning trials in our Analytical Center. By all of these means, Zestron guarantees stable and reliable processes with top-quality cleaning results.
After process implementation, Zestron’s engineers define the most cost effective process parameters for the customer. Our After Sales Services also include a bath analysis for the first period and provide our customers with simple methods to control the cleaning bath themselves. Due to the continuous bath analysis in the beginning, we can define actions to ensure the longest possible bath life time for the process. All of these aspects lead to the lowest price per cleaned part and simply a better quality at lower costs.
How would you underline your performance bond?
With three headquarters, one each in Europe, Asia and the USA, and an extensive sales partner network worldwide, Zestron guarantees customer support in every part of the world and is the accepted global market and technology leader. Currently, we have more than 20 highly educated process engineers dedicated to customer support and the experience of more than 1500 processes installed worldwide.
Zestron is also a driving force in cleaning technology innovations. Your Micro Phase Cleaning (MPC) Technology is well known for many years. Lately, you introduced a new Technology named FAST. Can you tell us more about it?
Zestron’s new cleaning technology FAST was introduced at Productronica 2007 and the name stands for “Fast Acting Surfactant Technology”. This innovation is based on a new generation of surfactants, which allow for a quicker removal of flux residues from assemblies. The newly developed surfactants have a smaller and more agile molecule structure than traditional surfactant cleaners, which enables them to act faster and provide a better wetting of substrate surfaces. At the same time, fewer active molecules are needed to remove contamination from the substrates. These characteristics lead in turn to improved cleaning results and a longer bath life time compared to traditional surfactants. The latest FAST Technology based cleaning agent is Atron AC 205, which was specifically developed for cleaning assemblies in spray-in-air applications.
What is Zestron planning for the future? What can we look forward to?
In the year 2007 Zestron expanded capacities with a new company building in the USA. The new American headquarters features a Technical Center with more than 1400 sqm of floor space and contains the largest selection of inline cleaning equipment.
In Shanghai, our team moved to a larger facility close to the Hongqiao International Airport in Zun Xuan Industrial Park, Minhang District, Shanghai. Our new facility is home to our Asia/Pacific Application Technology Center providing a large selection of cleaning machines for customer cleaning trials.
This year, a new company building is planned at our headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany. The new building will feature a much larger Technical & Analytical Center for our European customers and provide more space to further expand our cleaning equipment selection. We are also expanding our team continuously and employ additional process engineers to ensure optimal support for our customers.
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