Tony Lentz, Field Application Engineer, FCT Assembly

During 2014, we witnessed an increased awareness of the value of clean circuit assemblies. More companies, either due to sheer necessity or the desire to reduce product defect liability, choose to adopt a cleaning process.

For decades, each year has produced circuit assemblies that are smaller and denser, with increased reliability expectations. 2014 was no exception to that rule. The volume of residue tolerable for a circuit assembly has never been lower.

2014 also witnessed an environmental awakening. More than one half of the defluxing systems sold by Aqueous Technologies in 2014 were zero discharge models. Just in 2014, Aqueous Technologies' equipment reduced the volume of water used by the electronic assembly industry by six million gallons compared to more traditional cleaning technologies. This is proof that one idea can change the world.

We also moved our manufacturing facility in 2014. Our new facility, in Corona California features a zero discharge factory. With the exception of restrooms, our new facility is zero discharge. All process water used to build and test our products is captured, filtered, and reused. This will save tens of thousands of gallons of water annually, a natural resource in short supply here in Southern California.

We expect good things in 2015, our twenty third year in business. We will continue our mission to design and manufacture best-in-class cleaning equipment which increases electronic assembly reliability within an environmentally responsible manner. We will expand our popular webinar and workshop schedules to provide more educational opportunities for our industry. We look forward to the opportunities and challenges 2015 will bring.