Interview with Mark Cherubin, Zestron Europe

What products and services does Zestron offer? "Zestron is a global manufacturer of cleaning agents for the SMT and semi-conductor backend sector. We offer the full bandwidth of cleaners for solvents, semi-aqueous and aqueous agents. With our cleaning processes, we cover the entire SMT production process, that is from the cleaning of high-performance modules and printed circuit board assemblies, through to the cleaning of stencils and tools", said Mr. Mark Cherubin. "We do not just develop and produce cleaning agents, however, but regard our main object as being to define and realise together with our customers the ideal process, that is the reconciliation of manufacturing systems, cleaning agents, contamination and process parameters for their specific applications. Overall, we can look back upon more than 25 years' experience of precision cleaning ", expanes Mr. Mark Cherubin. Why are cleaning processes becoming increasingly important in the production of electronics? "The reliability of electronic components and assemblies can be extremely impaired by surface contamination at the different stages of the production process. This is particularly critical in the case of high-performance and high-end components that are later installed in sectors such as the aerospace, medical or the automotive industry. Failures can occur in conjunction with climatic conditions such as humidity and greatly varying temperatures, and the electrochemical migration or leakage that they cause. Through the integration of suitable qualification measures and an efficient cleaning process, reliable and reproducible processes can be assured, however, and the long-term reliability of the end product can be significantly enhanced " said Mr. Mark Cherubin. What differentiates Zestron from other providers of cleaning solutions? According to Mark Cherubin, "Zestron places immense value on a complete service and possesses in-depth process expertise. We do not simply want to deliver the respective cleaning agents to our customers; we want to develop together with our customers the ideal cleaning process for the respective application. This ranges from the initial cleaning tests through to the implementation and ongoing monitoring of the cleaning process. To achieve this, more than 22 process engineers travel to our customers world-wide to locally implement cleaning processes or to solve current problems. The core of our customer support lies world-wide in three technical centres where more than 35 cleaning systems from internationally leading manufacturers are available for customer cleaning tests. These centres represent, so to speak, the first point of contact when it comes down to finding the most effective solution to a special cleaning problem and to substantiate a decision to invest in a cleaning plant. For the German-speaking countries and Europe, the Technical Centre in Ingolstadt is open to all interested users. Further centres are located in the USA and Shanghai, China". "This means that we are capable of developing together with our customers the most suitable cleaning process, with regard to performance and the lowest costs per cleaned part, for the respective manufacturing process. To check and ensure the surface purity of the assemblies, we also have analysis centres that dispose of the most commonly used test methods to guarantee that the tests comply with international industrial standards such as IPC". In which countries is Zestron represented? "We are represented globally by our 3 corporate centres in Europe, Asia and America; additionally we are represented in over 40 countries by our specially trained sales partners. This ensures a closely knit local support at all times by us or our partners" said Mr. Mark Cherubin. What plans does Zestron have for the future? "Zestron has grown continually over recent years and has consolidated its position as the global market leader. This means that we also have great obligations toward our customers, which we naturally want to fulfil. We will therefore continue in future to provide the excellent service with which our customers are familiar. To this end, at the beginning of 2008 a new Zestron office building will be erected in Ingolstadt on our company property, doubling the size of our Technical Centre and creating even more testing possibilities for customers. The Technical Centre in the USA has already been expanded to 1400 m2 with the construction of the new company building in 2007, and the centre in Shanghai will soon be enlarged to a size of 600 m2" explanes Mr. Mark Cherubin. "At the same time, over the years we have continually increased the number of employees world-wide. In China there are currently 6, and in the USA 18 employees; in Ingolstadt, where the research, development and main production also takes place, 105 employees work on solutions for the industrial cleaning of electronic assemblies. In 2008, we will again specifically take on more people so that we will be able to continue in future to guarantee the best process support world-wide for our customers". This interview was conducted by Herbert Hoenle, editor evertiq.de