About Us
Who We Are
We are a small family owned company that cares deeply about the quality of the product we produce and sell to our customers. HVAC/R fittings are the bread and butter of what we do so we are hyper focused on producing the highest and consistent quality fittings. Our core mission is to help simplify the work of HVAC/R contractors through our cutting edge metal to metal sealing technology that we believe will increase the safety level for contractors as brazing and flaring jobs can be a hazardous and labor intensive job.
Brian Kim (Founder, CEO of SmartLock), an entrepreneur at heart with a background in ocean engineering found it perplexing that since the invention of heating and air conditioning about 100 years ago, there has been no other viable way to connect copper or aluminum tubes together without brazing or flaring. As he dove deeper into the HVAC/R industry, he saw that there were many issues with using open flames on expensive equipment to connect the valves to copper or aluminum tubes. Not only was the flaring or brazing jobs causing inconsistent results that depended on the skill level of the contractor, but a hazardous job if the contractor had to use open flames in dry attics or in tight corners. Let’s not forget the multitude of equipment and permits that are required for the traditional brazing and flaring work. So, Brian set out to change the industry with the help of his daughter, Bo Kim (Vice President), and the four different sales representative companies that facilitate the marketing and sales side of the company across the United States.
SmartLock fittings are a superior product that utilizes metal to metal sealing technology for a more secure and permanent seal, compared to other fittings on the current market that uses rubber o-rings as the main sealing agent. Rubber o-rings deteriorate at a rapid pace once exposed to external environments (refrigerants, oils, temperature, ozone, etc), but metal ferrule does not have those issues at all. SmartLock fittings have the highest design pressure range and burst pressure range on the market. In our humble opinion, we believe SmartLock is the safest opinion available in the market.