A 20th anniversary is a very rare event in business. It only comes around once, and for 98 percent of businesses it never comes at all.

Twenty years ago (March, 1994 to be exact) QEC shipped its first products to its customers. That this company has flourished through good times and challenging ones is a testament to our product, our customer service, and the excellent people who make both possible.

QEC was founded in 1993 by an environmental chemist and entrepreneur who perceived the need for sampling containers that were designed and prepared specifically to meet the particular needs of the environmental laboratory industry, with a dedication to the most rigorous standards of product quality and responsive customer service.

Your HCl vials may be properly cleaned and certified, but what about the HCl itself?

Did you know that most of the commercially available hydrochloric acids exceed EPA quantitation limits for certain contaminants, making those acids unsuitable for VOC preservation?

EPA guidelines for contaminant-free sample containers recommend there should be no more than one half of the CLP’s Contract Required Quantitation Limit (CRQL) contributed by the container. Surprisingly, the majority of the commercially available acids tested exhibited levels exceeding the CRQL when used as a preservative.

QEC uses its own unique procedure to remove or reduce preservative contaminants to better than acceptable levels before adding the HCl to our vials.

The table below shows the volatile organic composition of a 1:1 solution of HCl and VOC-free water before and after our treatment process.

The result is HCl preserved vials that are absolutely trustworthy for VOC preservation and analyses. Certificates of Analysis for vials and acid can be produced upon request.

Sampling containers that are cleaned and certified according to EPA protocols have individual lot numbers that will indicate, among other things, the date on which that particular lot of containers was prepared.

Containers prepared on one day will have a different lot number from those prepared the next day.

That’s how QEC does it, and that’s supposed to be how everyone does it.

But not everyone does.

If your lab gets shipments of “certified” containers many months apart but all with the same lot number, this could indicate that the lot has been mislabeled, or worse, that the certification itself is bogus.

Ask your supplier for documentation of lab analysis for any lot you have a question about. QEC can provide chromatographs and full documentation for every lot of certified containers we produce.

Protect your sample integrity and make sure your certified containers really are certified.

QEC’s approach to market growth is a patient, consistent dedication to product quality and customer service, supported by a strong communication effort to get our message in front of our audience.

As a result, a one-time regional company serving a few states in the eastern US, now does business in 16 countries on five continents (as well as all fifty of the United States).

For information about world-wide availability of QEC products, please contact Mike McCune at 800-255-3950.