Ion exchange resin technology has been widely used as a practical and effective form of water treatment since the 1960s.

Outwardly, the ion-exchange resin looks like a cluster of small balls, the diameter of which does not exceed a millimeter. The material for the manufacture of these balls is special polymers.

The most common use of ion exchange resins is to soften water, but they have many other uses as well.

Water pollution is a major problem worldwide, and new drinking water quality regulations have been introduced for contaminants such as disinfectant by-products, arsenic, nitrate, perchlorate and uranium. Specialized ion exchange resins solve these problems.

The ion exchange process removes soluble ionized contaminants ranging from metals to hardness salts from water through reversible ion exchange between the solid phase (resin beads) and the liquid phase (water).

The two main categories of ion exchange resins are cation and anion. Cation resins include a strong/weak cation (H+ and Na+). Anion resins include a strong/weak anion such as OH- and Cl-. Acting together or on their own, these types remove many ionic contaminants from the water.