3Flow, formerly Exposure Control Technologies, Inc. (ECT, Inc.), was founded by Tom Smith in 1994 as an Industrial Hygiene Engineering firm specializing in safety and energy management for research laboratories. Tom brought an inventive mind and a rare educational background combining mechanical engineering and industrial hygiene to bear on solving the problems inherent to operating exposure control ventilation systems. These systems are essential in research settings for the protection of researchers, teachers and students who necessarily work with hazardous materials daily. These systems tend to be complex and expensive to build and operate. Laboratories use 10 times more energy than commercial buildings and 60% of the energy is consumed by the laboratory ventilation systems. Tom has dedicated himself and built his company around the purpose of helping laboratory owners and operators improve the safety, dependability and efficiency of their systems.