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By James Carr, Specialized Coating Services

With a long-standing reputation for quality and exceeding customer expectation, Specialized Coating Services recognizes like-minded companies and partners with them whenever possible, which is why it has been working with fellow California-based Aqueous Technologies for the past 15 years.

Specialized Coating Services has been providing contract conformal coating, potting and encapsulation, and ruggedization of PCBs since 1996 when it was co-founded by Rick Ramirez and Kim Atkins. Since that time, the business has grown from a startup to a thriving company of more than 100 people that provides service worldwide. Like Aqueous Technologies, it got its start in a garage with a single customer but has since built its reputation by providing quality products, delivering on time and promoting open communication with both customers and suppliers. Currently, Specialized Coating Services meets – or exceeds – demand in a variety of industries, including medical, military, aerospace, electric vehicles, automotive energy and commercial.

Founded by Mike Konrad in 1992 and headquartered in Corona, CA, Aqueous Technologies manufactures aqueous cleaning/defluxing systems as well as ionic contamination (cleanliness) testing equipment and ultrasonic stencil cleaning systems. Now more than 4,000 customers strong across six continents, Aqueous has come far from its “garage” days. That growth has been cultivated through interactions with customers, advisors, employees and colleagues all in the name of making the industry –and the world – a better place.

“Aqueous Technologies believes in designing, manufacturing, and supporting cleaning and cleanliness testing products that are highly effective and that protect the environment,” said Aqueous Technologies President Mike Konrad. “Our efforts save millions of gallons of water annually.”

For 26 years, the company has specialized in the manufacturing of cleaning and cleanliness testing systems for the electronics assembly industry. Aqueous Technologies’ equipment uses the planet’s purest substance – water – for the removal of harmful ionic residues. It is the company’s mission to continue developing environmentally-conscious equipment that assists manufacturers with increasing product reliability. Its products are used to improve reliability in many industries including medical, aviation, defense, communication, consumer, and countless more. Konrad said that the Aqueous Technologies team takes pride in knowing their customers’ products last longer and function more reliably as a result of the products they make.

That strategy aligns closely with Specialized Coating Services, and is a big part of the reason why the two companies have been working together for close to two decades. Specialized Coating Services currently has a Trident saponified flux removal system and a Zero Ion cleanliness testing system in its Fremont, CA facility.

Specialized Coating Services President and Co-Founder Rick Ramirez said that he became a believer in the quality of Aqueous Technologies’ products after using them for a few years. He added, “Rarely have I had to call the service department and when I do the service and response time are always second to none for both over-the-phone assistance and parts availability.”

Ramirez and his team are an Aqueous Technologies demo site for the Northern California area. He said that he had been performing demos for customers in the Fremont, CA location before Specialized Coating Services even became an official demo site because he liked the products that much. The company opened a second location recently in Billerica, MA, and that site also is a demo site of Aqueous Technologies’ products for the East Coast.

“I wouldn’t be volunteering our facility as a demo site if I didn’t believe in the Aqueous products,” Ramirez said. “They are so easy to program and run, and they have many features that are beneficial to the users. I can’t think of any other system that competes with Aqueous in terms of quality and cost. Repairs to the machine are also very easy and, with the help of the Tech department, it’s a breeze.”

Konrad said, “It has been our privilege to provide Specialized Coating Services with cleaning and cleanliness testing systems over the past several years, including additional cleaning and cleanliness testing products for their new Boston-area facility.”

Specialized Coating Services’ Billerica site helps facilitate the needs of the company’s Midwestern and East Coast customers by providing quicker turnaround and reducing freight costs, as well as keeping pace with the continued growth in these areas. The 13,000-sq. ft. facility is equipped with the latest in robotic and conventional spray systems, as well as plasma treatment, cleaning and ionic test equipment, potting and encapsulation meter mix systems, and more. The certifications currently in place in the California facility are planned for mid-2018 in Massachusetts, including AS9100D, ISO 9001:2015, ITAR and ANSI/ESD S20.20, with NADCAP in early 2019. With these certifications in place on both coasts, Specialized Coating Services’ customers will know that their boards will be handled in compliance with the latest practices and procedures.

The company provides contract services for conformal coating, encapsulating (potting) and ruggedization of printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in numerous segments and applications, including military, medical, commercial, energy, space and aerospace. Specialized Coating Services also provides a range of applications to meet customers’ needs. In addition to aqueous cleaning, it offers minor subassembly of parts and focuses on spraying, robot coating, potting/encapsulation, nano coatings, plasma treatment, ionic testing and UV selection. Additionally, the company provides a range of services from assisting in the selection of coating, potting or ruggedizing materials to providing prototypes and establishing manufacturing processes that ensure consistent quality and repeatable finishes. Specialized Coating Services provides each customer with unparalleled service and quality. Aqueous Technologies’ Zero Ion and Trident cleaning systems help the company provide that expected level of quality.

The Zero Ion meets the cleanliness testing challenges associated with modern circuit assemblies, and is capable of extracting and quantifying assembly contamination levels per numerous military specifications. While other cleanliness testers can only quantify contamination extracted from an assembly, the Zero Ion uses a cross-flow extraction process, subjecting the circuit assembly to rapid fluid currents, assisting in the extraction, solubilization and quantification of assembly residues. It also uses Dynamic Measurement Technology, which increases the accuracy of the test by maintaining test fluid sensitivity throughout the testing process. This means the test solution is continually re-deionized during the test. The Zero Ion performs accurate cleanliness testing without needing to heat the test solution. Ambient temperature cleanliness testing eliminates the need for heaters, eliminating warm-up times while increasing equipment and operator safety.

The Trident automatic cleaning/defluxing system removes all contamination and residues from post-reflow circuit assemblies. When assembly and flux residues are removed, so is the chance for electro-chemical migration (ECM) failures. Clean assemblies are more reliable assemblies. Additionally, it is equipped with built-in process monitoring technology that allows resistivity levels to be programmed, producing consistency in assembly cleanliness levels. Final resistivity results are displayed on the operator interface and must be acknowledged before assemblies can be removed from Trident. Results are stored in the SPC management system and may be searched and retrieved anytime via the built-in SQL multi-query database. The system is available in zero and low discharge configurations ad all Trident models are available in single- and double-chamber configurations.

“We believe in a company’s ability to make the world a better place,” said Konrad. Each year, Aqueous Technologies’ products save millions of gallons of water. Its line of zero discharge products prevent millions of gallons of water from going to drain, eliminating risk for customers while adding reliability and value to their products.

“Our mission has remained unchanged over the past 26 years: We are committed to design, manufacture, sell and support products that are environmentally responsible, technically relevant, effective, and add reliability and value to our customer’s products,” concluded Konrad. “Specialized Coating Systems shares in our vision by providing coating services that protect their customer’s products from harsh environments, resulting in higher levels of product reliability. Our company’s shared passion for added reliability makes for a win-win relationship. Our entire team is delighted to see Specialized Coating Services expand their business by adding a Boston facility. We wish them much success as they improve reliability of their customer’s products on the East Coast.”

For more information about Aqueous Technologies, contact Vice President John Hall at 1678 N Maple St., Corona, CA 92880; 951-298-8800; E-mail: jhall@aqueoustech.com; Web site: http://www.aqueoustech.com/. To find out more about Specialized Coating Services, contact Rick Ramirez, President/Co-Founder, at 42680 Christy St., Fremont, CA 94538; 510-453-4150; E-mail: rick@speccoat.com; Web site: www.speccoat.com.