I work in the industry here in US. Most work i in aerospace. Luckily most my ccustomers are well aware of problems with lead-free solders. I'm seeing more and more of them specificly specifying by contract "No Lead Free Solder". Even started seeing this from European customers.
Lead Free
Jan 28, 2006
4 Replies
What problems are you seeing?
Leonard
If buying an airline ticket, for your piece of mind, specify to the travel company that you would like to travel by plane with electronics assembled using _leaded_ solder....
There have been strong objections from aircraft builders, avionics makers and the military, on reliability/safety issues caused by growing whiskers of tin shorting out adjacent joints.
Adrian C
This will not be a problem. The avionics and medical instrument industries have been exempted from this piece of lunatic legislation.
Arfa
Tin whiskers is one problem. That is not the biggest one tho. I've seen reports that none of the (common) lead free solders are as reliable: they fatigue quicker. Aerospace is very conservative. Unless there is a compelling reason to change something, and you can show that it works, don't change it. So I expect lead solder to be used for quite a while longer (if not forever)
M Walter
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