Is the US going to be lead free??

[rshayes]

Most of the alternative alloys seem to use silver. This will probably increase the price somewhat, but not enough to significantly increase the product cost. The eventual problem may be the supply of silver, since it is processed and sold by the ounce rather than by the ton.

Silver is often a by product of lead mining. It would be ironic if lead production had to be increased to provide enough silver to replace the lead previously used in soldering.

<small>[ March 28, 2006, 04:03 PM: Message edited by: stephen ]</small>

[Geoff]

A couple comments....

Philba: That 700 degree tip temp sounds about right. About 10 years ago, RCA was telling us not to exceed 700 degrees EVER and suggested 600-650 as a maximum to prevent board damage. I've lifted a few traces on their boards at 700 degrees. I hope the new boards can tolerate a little more heat. I wonder how surface mount resistors and caps like the extra heat.......

JPKNHTP: I agree, we will probably forget how well lead worked or that it was ever used. Just like we are forgetting how good video and audio tape can work if it is done right. (The crap they sell these days is not an example of how to do it right). Perhaps we will simply become satisfied with an inferior product. I hope that will not be the case.

As for lead in gas, I had a '74 Dodge van, and it ate a set of valves every 30k to 40k when they started removing lead. Said right in the owners manual that low lead fuel should not be used on a regular basis. They didn't even mention NO lead fuel.

But I get your point, and you are right. That old van was designed to use lead, and I doubt the engineers expected me to drive it for so long.

Enough of my random neuron firings....I gotta go to work.

[Dave Dixon]

There is tons of information, and lots of forums on the lead free issues. Newark Electronics has a pretty cool , educational area, among many other distributors. Also do a search on "Tin Whiskers". They remind me of coral - mineral, or alive???

[haklesup]

It is unlikely to be regulated by the US federal government due to the fact that industry is already self regulating (worldwide to comply with the european RoHS requirement) and that this administration is reluctant to sign any legislation involving enviornmental commitments because it fears that these will limit economic growth (and thus would not strongly support internal regulation).

Unlike Europe, the US govt prefers to be "Hands Off Business" as much as possible.

This new lead free stuff is reviving all sorts of failure mechanisms once thought to be solved. Tin wiskers which grow out of plated metal are back and causing shorts in semiconductor interconnects for example. Unfortunately we may see a short term drop in reliability because of this.

http://www.ipc.org/
http://leadfree.ipc.org/

This is a bigger deal than the CE marking requirements they rolled out a number of years ago.

[Bear]

Hello everyone! just a couple of comments. #1- yes the states are going lead-free. I work for a distributor of Belden wire & we will not be able to sell any wire that does not carry the ROHS symbol on the outside of the box.
By 7-1-06 we will have approx 1 million feet of wire we will be unable to sell.
So far we have not heard from Belden how we can/are going to handle the left over stock.
As far as solder goes, it is the same situation. Pricing on silver bearing solder
is as follows .035dia. 60/40, 1# roll is about $12-13/roll. Same stuff w/silver is about $24-25/roll. We carry both Kester & Multicore and the price is identical for both manufacturers.

[Robert Reed]

Bear
If you can't sell it , you can always give it away-to me
Just kidding, but if Belden decides on a last minute sellout, let us know.