My mom-and-pop business makes and sells electronic widgets used by musicians. Assembly is by hand. Primary market is USA, but I also sell into Europe on rare occasion.
I'm trying to understand whether RoHS will have any practical impact on me. Have seen some discussion on this ng, but still have some questions:
1) Do I need to worry about compliance? When it takes effect, will I be unable to sell my goods in Europe any more, or will no one be paying attention?
2) It already seems that many components are available in Pb-free packages, and some are *only* available that way. Do I need to treat Pb-free packages differently for assembly? (I.e., does solder stick to 'em the same?)
3) Is it feasible to move to Pb-free assembly, for my tiny manual operation? What kind of solder and PCBs do I need to use, and do I still use the same soldering techniques?
Walter, the components have to be leadfree to start with, then comes the leadfree soldering. This is where the problem starts. There is a multitude of solders with Tinn-Silver-and such, their melting temp is at 220 compared to the 188 of the usual tinn-lead solder. The leadfree solder is less reliable and therefore there are some exemtions for the car industry, for other safety relevant parts and such. Plus the silver in the leadfree is know for growing several mm long whiskers which can shorten a 1206 and below. This whiskering can be avoided by a teperature treatment at
230 degrees. This is doable unless you use prefabricated units which have some solder inside. These prefabricated units used to have hightemperature solder inside to prevent melt during the usual sooldering process. Now this marging for the prefabricated units is grown rather narrow.
Who will pay attention ? This is hard to say. Since the usual certification is self done in Europe, I guess this applies here too. This then means a customer or competitor can rise doubts about you adhering to the rules and you'll have to prove that they do, and bring up some papers from your manufacturers and/or testing lab.
Shelf-life of (unassembled) RoHS-compliant components & boards may not be as good as the older ones.
Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
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As far as I can tell, no-one will be paying attention. Been pretty much the same for the CE marking required for safety and EMC.
I think *normal* solder will wet most things..
Various solders are available - some include silver or copper and other various metals including bismuth IIRC. No-one seems to have decided what's best.
Lead free processing requires at least a 50C increase in processing temps. The solder joints *always* look dull too.
From my understanding, as with most Eurpoean directives you will be self-declaring. If you equipment has the right paperwork filled out and the right logos (CE mark and TBD ROHS mark) then customs will let the product into Europe. Note that the opposite is not necessarily true--it may get in without it but not guaranteed.
Once inside Europe you _may_ be challenged and in that case you will need to prove that your declarations are legit. For the ROHS case this means that you know exactly what went into your product and that is all meets the ROHS directive as an assembly.
There are fines in place if you try to pass yourself off as being compliant but willfully are not. It is my understanding that you don't have to be 100% correct you just need to show that you _thought_ you were correct and that it is documented.
The soldering process is NOT the same. Pb-free solder must be heated to a higher temperature and stay there longer for a proper joint. You will have to check with your non-Pb-free packaging but this will usually go over the recommended soldering temperature for those older packages.
So in theory you can use PB-free parts in the old process that is lower temperature. This works as long as the "pin" is not made of solder itself like on a BGA--in this case the ball needs to melt and will need the higher temperature to do so properly. There also may be joint issues using PB-based solder with PB-free pins. But there are so many variations of each that its impossible to give just a simple rule.
I'd suggest talking with a assembly house and PCB fabrication house and see if they can send you any information. You may want to cross reference with a few different places.
Yes it is feasible but things do change. Exactly what solder to use is a point of contention and the long-term reliability of the solder joints is difficult to predict.
My personal opinion is look at this in a slighty different way. Instead of trying to simply comply to whatever legislation is around I'd rather do some research and use the minimal impact on the environment as a marketing feature of the end product. Given that it looks like your business caters to high-end audio I think you may find that this approach will give you an edge. Go beyond what is simply required by legislation and do The Right Thing (TM)--we'll all be better off for it.
Hmmm - that's going to be great for lab work where you normally keep a small stock of regularly used parts. I can see why samples are now arriving in vacuum bags.
Is there any process which would allow me to mix lead-free with non-lead-free parts? (For SMT).
I realise the result would not be RoHS compliant! But it would be nice to be able to have a transition period where I am using up the old stock, while buying new stock as lead-free.
A bit OT here but out of curiosity: You say on your web site that you want to turn the biz into full time. Does it work? IOW, does it generate decent revenue?
Well, I spent about half a year doing nothing but audio, and then some of my old software buddies made me a contracting offer I couldn't refuse... So audio is back to part-time; actively pursued but only a couple hours a day. The contracting gig will end at some point, and then I'll be back to chasing audio full-time.
I don't expect audio to ever make me rich. I'm neither a great engineer nor a great entrepreneur, although I do seem to manage to satisfy my customers; and there are plenty of other people wanting to do the same thing as me. I just want it to make me enough money that I can afford to keep doing it.
The business was turning a profit, but not enough of one to pay myself decently. Most of the revenue came either from sound reinforcement or from broadcast studio work (installations and maintenance); but that kind of work, while fun, doesn't pay so well. The one product I manufacture sells at a steady, but slow, pace; not enough to pay the rent. I'm working on another product that will be more profitable.
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