First appearance of lead-free solder inside electronic equipment in Europe?

"N_Cook" wrote in news:h46oma$rkt$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

Have manufacturers standardized the lead-free solder used? Is there a common lead-free repair solder? How does one determine what type of LF solder to be used?

Yikes,what a mess.....

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

No standardisation as far as I'm aware Jim, but it's all much of a muchness. After a great deal of experimentation with lead frees for repair purposes, I finally settled on Ersin 309 from Multicore. With the temperature of your iron jacked up about 15 - 20 degrees C, it behaves reasonably similarly to leaded solder. Some people I know swear by lead free that's got a touch of silver in it, but it's quite a bit more expensive, and to date, I haven't had any problems getting the '309 to 'stick'.

Choosing a solder is, I think, largely a matter of personal preference. The only recommendations that I've seen is that leaded and non leaded shouldn't be mixed in the same joint, as it can lead to long term degradation of the joint's integrity. To that end, it's important to look for the slashed out Pb symbol or the letters "PbF" on the board, or learn to recognise a lead-free joint (not hard as they all look like cold bad joints) on boards that are not marked.

You are right. The whole thing is a bloody mess, as is the entire subject of recycling and waste management in electronics service. When I have time, I have a slightly off-topic thread to start on a specific angle of this, that came to my attention last week ...

Arfa

Where the box has a green RoHS sticker or PbF on the board overlay I use silver solder, with nothing sofar come bouncing back with an incompatibility issue, but early days yet. Bit more expensive but , in terms of time, scrapping off the tin of RoHS compliant components , for tinpest compliance, is more expensive.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

It seems to me that the history majors have wormed their way into gov't and bureaucracy. Their knee jerk reactions to "poisons" is crippling our economies. Everything is poisonous if it is in the wrong place at the wrong time. A pint of water can kill you also.

Al

I've certainly got no argument with any of your points there. The word I coined for this whole sorry mess is "ecobollox", and the people behind it, "The Green Mist Brigade" ...

Arfa

Arfa Daily wrote in message news:eeE9m.30756$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe18.ams...

muchness.

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that

I don't have your confidence in recognising PbF. Anyone know their chemistry ? Test for lead , but would it work with alloyed lead with tin. ? Yellow precipitate forms with potassium chromate or potassium iodide. Does tin combine with iodine or chromium to give a yellow compound?

So far this is my hints/tips for lead free, but could do with somrthing more definite. Is that lead-free solder ? some simple, but not definitive test for lead-free solder. Lead-free production probably started in Japan in 2001 eg Japan passed the Electric Appliance Recycling Law, April 2001 eg

"The soldering on every aspect of Sony's DCR-TRV 30 digital camcorder, released in March 2001, is 99.7% lead-free, including all supplied accessories. " So probably sets the earliest date. Genuine , not just assembled, manufactured in USA is probably lead free solder , up to 2009 anyway. If a green RoHS sticker on the outside or PbF marked on the pcb overlay , then lead-free solder. Some hints for deciding, probabalistically. If the solder joints have a conical form with sharp points where component leads emerge then probably lead-free, compared to a more domed form for leaded. If more temperature is required to melt the solder then probably lead-free. Is the surface appearance of the solder a dusty grey long before you would otherwise expect it to look old, asuming its not been stored in a shed or garage. When you desolder some with a 700 degree F iron, is it "claggy" ie pastey and lumpy in texture ? If when molten you push in a stainless sewing needle and extract it before the solder hardens and leaves a trace on the needle, leaded will only require a finger nail to remove it but lead-free will more likely need pliers to remove it from the needle.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

I happen to have some potassium dichromate (not chromate) around, but a solution of that on freshly scored lead sheet shows no obvious colour change to the lead surface.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Another label to watch out for. A sticker in the manner of road traffic prohibition sign stuck to the pcb. Circle with a diagonal bar and letters P and b either side. On today's latest pbf horror, made in 2007 with solder joints that look like they're made by a teenage trainee on his fist day and white dusty finish that looks as though its been in a garden shed for 10 years

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

That's a better description of the symbol I called "slashed out Pb". As to your horror of the day, I despair as to what we are stacking up for ourselves in a few years' time, if this is allowed to go on ...

Arfa

pcb.

to

Someone paid 800 GBP for this amp and in 2 years it is self destructing, tantamount to fraud.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

change

I tried some potassium dichromate, dissolved in some hot water, allowed to cool and then placed in a small plastic lid. 3 samples , some scrapings of lead sheet, some scrapings of silver solder and some lead-free solder scrapings. Allowed to soak for three hours, towelled up the liquid and allowed to dry out overnight. The only samples with any yellow colouring were the lead ones, but I cannot convince myself it was not just a coating of fine crystals of orange K dichromate, too thin to see the orange colour. the lead-free scrapings were as silvery as when pared off.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on