Breda, Holland -- On November 15, 2008, Cobar Europe (Cobar BV) marked the 25th anniversary of its founding in Breda, Holland, in 1983. Cobar Europe is part of the Cobar Group, which includes Cobar Europe BV in Breda, Holland, Cobar Solder Products Inc. in Londonderry, NH, USA, plus several joint ventures and licensed manufacturing partnerships around the world. The Cobar Group is part of the Balver Zinn family of companies.

Cobar BV became known as a developer of solder pastes for SMT assembly, and for its pioneering work in No Clean fluxes and low-VOC fluxes, a practical compromise between VOC-free water-based fluxes, which were problematic, and the VOC flux types that were being phased out under Montreal Protocol provisions. Cobar BV went on to develop VOC-free and low-VOC flux products, as well as high-performance synthetic No Clean fluxes that worked well under the higher heat requirements of emerging lead-free solders. Today, Cobar BV provides superior flux formulations for use with the popular SN100C alloy developed by Nihon Superior Ltd. and used worldwide.

Early on, Cobar Europe focused heavily on quality and accreditation. Cobar BV was accredited to ISO 9001 in 1994 and to ISO 14001 in 1997, and was accredited to NATO's AQAP-110. Cobar Europe BV and Cobar Solder Products Inc, was first accredited to the prestigious ISO/TS 16949 Quality Management Standard in early 2005 and again in 2008.

In early 2004, Cobar Europe established a North American headquarters – Cobar Solder Products - in Londonderry, New Hampshire, USA.

In September 2007, Cobar Europe and Cobar Solder Products (US) and all of the Cobar Group were officially acquired by Balver Zinn, a leading non-ferrous metals producer headquartered in Balve, Germany. Balver Zinn is a leading provider of high-quality anodes with various alloys as well as soft solders and special wires. Balver Zinn has licenses for SN100C™ (Nihon Superior, Japan) and for SAC-alloys (Iowa, USA & Senju, Japan).

Mr.Stan Renals, Managing Director CEO of the Cobar Group, said "Cobar continues to grow and reach further into Europe, Asia and the Americas with their wide range of fluxes and solder pastes and are continuing to develop new products to meet market changes.”