Shop OBEX P1 Docs P2 Docs Learn Events
Lead-Free (Solder) Compliance — Parallax Forums

Lead-Free (Solder) Compliance

pjvpjv Posts: 1,903
edited 2005-12-22 20:56 in General Discussion
Hi All;

OK, so I'm not a "tree-hugger", but I'm also environmentally conscious, at least to a sensible level; I have no use for idiocity at any level!

This nasty bit of European regulatory skulduggery is finding it's way into my operation; as of July 1, 2006 my European clients can no longer import equipment that contains (among other things) solder. That is unless they are servers, communication equipment, and a short list of other items, none of which apply in my case. Of all things, mercury in lighting equipment is still OK.

What is the popular "short course" on how a small operator deals with these issues? Do you just fill your wave solder machine with lead-free solder, whatever that is; replace your hand-solder roll with some other material, and change your surface mount solder paste to what?

Can anyone give some insight as to how to deal with this on a practical level as only a small, but significant,·portion of my production is affected by this.

All practical help and·guidance will be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Peter (pjv)

·

Comments

  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2005-12-22 00:59
    ·** RoHS ** (Restriction of Hazardous Substances)

    What to do?· You don't think this is just another way to force out pesky entrepreneurs and make the market safe for fat-cat corporationists, do you?

    http://www.pb-free.info/laymans_terms.htm

    You know, it's not just your solder spool, it's your pre-"tinned" component leads, too.




    Post Edited (PJ Allen) : 12/22/2005 1:03:18 AM GMT
  • SN96SN96 Posts: 318
    edited 2005-12-22 03:46
    At my work we use SN96 for about 90% of our jobs. SN96 is a high temp lead free alloy with a melting point of about 700deg. F. We also use SN63 (Tin, lead) for our less critical applications.
    You mentioned paste, we use sn96 paste for our SMT boards and on·occasion used HMP solder paste. HMP·has terrible reflow characteristics. You could use sn96 for the paste but then you have to worry about the electronic components being subjected to higher temps. I'm not sure of other lower melting point lead free solders on the market. I will look into this.



    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Mike

    ·
  • pjvpjv Posts: 1,903
    edited 2005-12-22 17:01
    Many thanks PJ and Mike;

    I read a bunch on this last night, and the "what you can't do" is becoming clearer, but the "how to" is certainly escaping me at this point.

    What a pain....

    Cheers,

    Peter (pjv)
  • BeanBean Posts: 8,129
    edited 2005-12-22 19:17
    The biggest pain I find is that unless a company is selling bunches of a chip, they will not make a lead-free version. It's just not profitable for them. So God help you if your using a chip that is a couple years old on your design.

    As was mentioned ALL componets and the PCB must be lead-free too.

    Bean.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    "SX-Video·Module" Now available from Parallax for only $28.95

    http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=30012

    "SX-Video OSD module" Now available from Parallax for only·$49.95
    http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=30015

    Product web site: www.sxvm.com

    Forget about the past, plan for the future, and live for today.
    ·
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-12-22 20:11
    Peter, I think this page should help you out alot, it is a breakdown of lead free alloys according to its melting point, a brief discussion of benefits/drawbacks of each alloy is given: http://www.austincc.edu/cloud/LeadFree/s2.htm

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    ·1+1=10
  • SN96SN96 Posts: 318
    edited 2005-12-22 20:56
    It looks as though Tin/Silver/Copper is going to be your closest alternative.

    Here is a link to a very interesting article:

    http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2005/113-10/innovations.html

    Here is one paragraph from that link:

    "The industry eventually selected a tin-silver-copper combination as offering the most reliability and ease to work with as a replacement. The formulation--95.5% tin, 3.9% silver, 0.6% copper--is also known as SAC solder, for the first letters of the chemical symbols of each of the elements (Sn, Ag, Cu). “Tin-silver-copper appears to have at least as good reliability if not higher reliability than tin-lead,” says Handwerker."

    You still have the dilemma of certain components being subjected to higher temperatures even with the alternative SAC solder. Hand soldering might not be as bad, however·reflow or wave soldering could be a different issue.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Mike

    ·
Sign In or Register to comment.