About us
3AWater – Trace metal detection for improving industrial water management
3AWater was established by nanotechnology and spectroscopy professionals in January 2019 in the land of thousand lakes in Kuopio, Finland. The concept and the first prototype of the 3AWater Multimetal Water Analysis System (MWAS) was developed at the Department of Applied Physics, University of Eastern Finland few years earlier. There was several tens of years of combined research even before that which led to this innovation. Read more about our story on our blog.
After incorporating 3AWater, the knowledge, research results and immaterial right were transferred to the company. 3AWater spent the next three years on research and development to improve the accuracy, reliability, and user experience of the product. We analysed several thousands of artificial and real water samples and created a comprehensive data set to ensure the reliability and accuracy of our analysis. After intense development, the MWAS was launched in the beginning of 2022. We are proud to say that the usability was optimized to the very detail and we believe this is one of the most user friendly chemical analysis systems ever build.
The motivation of the founders of 3AWater was to create a concrete and useful product from the years of academic research. We wanted be part of the change for more environmental-friendly society by providing the industry tools to optimize their production while keeping the environmental impact to minimum. The fast, easy and accessible water quality monitoring technology we provide is essential to monitor, regulate and treat industrial waters in order to prevent pollution of waters, to remediate already polluted waters, and to make sure potable waters are clean and safe for consumption or irrigation.
Values
Sustainability and environmental responsibility – The purpose of 3AWater is to create value to our customers and stakeholders in the domain of sustainability and environmental responsibility. Our focus is to help our customers to be part of the change towards more sustainable industrial operations. In addition, we are striving to make our own operations more sustainable and demand environmental responsibility from our subcontractors and partners.
Reliability – Reliability is the key aspect of any analytical tool. This includes both reliability of the analysis results and minimizing other sources of errors including human errors. Our philosophy behind the technical development is that anyone should be able to make the reliable analysis in any conditions without extensive training, frequent calibrations, blank measurements, rinsing and cleaning steps and other maintenance work typically involved with analytical equipment.
Trust – We understand the value and risks involved in the water quality data produced by our products. The confidentiality of any such data is our priority. Our customers can choose whether or not they want to use the IoT connectivity and data transfer to external cloud service or to only store the data locally.
Collaboration – We are aiming for long term customer relations and want to ensure the best experience for our customers. Industrial waters can vary significantly which can make the on-site, as well as standard laboratory analyses, quite complex. Therefore, we always want to make sure our systems work well with customer’s waters and fulfils their specific needs. We are willing to go the extra mile to offer the best possible performance in each customer case.
Scientific knowledge – We are scientists who believe in education and open communication. Therefore, we are publishing our scientific work related to our technology with our academic collaborators, releasing educational blog posts and collaborate with universities and educational centres. You can find the latest open access publication about early prototype of our product here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.analchem.2c01490
Quality policy
3AWater provides real-time water quality monitoring technologies for mining and metal industry to make their water related operations safer, more sustainable and effective. The needs and expectations of our customers and other stakeholders are identified and taken into account in our processes. The sustainability aspects are considered in our daily operational activities.
Everyone at 3AWater is committed to comply with laws and regulations and the requirements of ISO 9001: 2015 standard. We are expecting the same from our supply chain and subcontractors. Adherence to the requirements will be ensured by internal and external audits.
Our strategic aims and operational objectives are set and communicated to stakeholders in a clear and understandable way. We have procedures, which allows everybody to take part in our continuous improvement of process and daily activities.
Scope of quality system – 3AWater develops, produces, markets, and sells water quality monitoring technology and offers after sales services for it. All processes and activities fulfil ISO 9001 requirements.
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Tuomo Nissinen
CEO & Co-Founder
Tuomo graduated with a PhD in applied physics from the University of Eastern Finland in 2016. After obtaining his PhD, Tuomo started commercializing the 3AWater technology. First, he worked as a project manager at the university evaluating the market potential of the technology concept and developing the first prototypes. After the incorporation of 3AWater, Tuomo started as the full-time CEO of the company. Tuomo’s tasks are managing day to day operations and ensuring the fulfilment of long-term goals. With deep knowledge of both the technical and commercial side of the business, he manages the finances and partnerships as well as provides technical knowledge to the sales efforts and users.
Joakim Riikonen
CTO, Co-Founder & Board Member
Joakim holds a PhD in applied physics from the University of Eastern Finland and has a solid academic background in nanotechnology and analysis techniques. He is an expert in production and modification of nanomaterials and has been involved in the technical development of 3AWater technology since the first laboratory experiments. Joakim’s job is to ensure high quality of the product, continuous development of the technology, and to help customers get the most out of their purchase.
Tommi Tiihonen
Technology expert & Co-Founder
Tommi has a MSc degree from the University of Eastern Finland and divides his time between PhD studies at the university and working with 3AWater technology development. Tommi has expertise in X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and traditional laboratory water quality analysis with ICP-MS. Tommi has also passion for computer science and he has worked a lot with 3AWater’s calibration algorithms.
Vesa-Pekka Lehto
Chairman of the board, Co-Founder
Vesa-Pekka is the professor of materials physics at the University of Eastern Finland and the leader of the Pharmaceutical Physics research group. During his scientific career, he has been prolific in publishing high level scientific articles and has secured several millions of external research funding. He has also been involved in two start-up companies. At 3AWater, he works as the scientific and technical advisor as well as the chair of the board.
Bernhard Münzing
Board Member & shareholder
Bernhard Münzing is a successful and innovative entrepreneurial pioneer with more than 20 years of experience in business development, market positioning, product management and international account management in chemical industry.
Pekka Savolahti
Industry advisor & Co-Founder
Pekka Savolahti is currently retired from his former position as a customer manager of water related industry at VTT Technical Research Center of Finland. He also worked at VTT as a manager of chemical analysis laboratories. During his career, his work included developing on-site metal analysis technology for waters, which was never fully implemented in practice. Pekka joined the 3AWater team in 2017 to get another chance to create and commercialize this type of technology. He is currently working as an active advisor of the company.
Petri Pietikäinen
Business Advisor
Petri Pietikäinen is partner and board member at Biosafe – Biological Safety Solutions ltd. He also works as an active business advisor of 3AWater. Petri has strong expertise in finance, business development and quality assurance.