It seems to me that the focus should be on the the most prolific uses of Pb. As mentioned, car batteries are substantial, especially if talking about electric ones. (Metal hydride batteries have come a long way, but there are still quite a few issues with their long term reliability and safety.) What's next? Wheel balancing weights and radiator end caps? Soon they'll be going after fishing weights and shotgun shells, not to mention batteries for trolling motors. It seems strange, but many of these processes are far less susceptable to reliability problems than and have far less impact than failed soldered electrical connections. You can stuff just about anything into a shotgun shell case! Have any of you ever compared the solderability of copper water tubing using leaded and unleaded solder? The unleaded does a much worse job in my experience. However, because it is for drinking, I can see suffering with poor solderability to keep it out of the water. (Note: there are other ways to achieve this without giving up the lead.)
Do any of you remember when the took the Cadmium out of silver solder? None of the newer alloys have ever come close to the wetting action Cadmium provided. And the amont of silver solder used each year is insignificant compared to the amount in NiCd batteries. Do you remember the men runnung ariound in space suits charging $100,000 USD or more to demolish a small house because the found traces on asbestos sealed in linoleum floor tile that had been waxed over for 50 years? Or howabout ALAR on Apples? Or all the people that dropped dead from mercury wetting on reed relays. DON'T TOUCH THAT THERMOSTAT!! It might have a bead of Mercury rolling back and forth in a sealed glass tube!!! I happen to live in the gold country. My friends pan and sluce for gold in the local rivers and do quite well for them selves. They constantly extract significant quantities of metallic mercury (pints) along with the gold. (Mercury is heavier and wets gold, so it also concentrates in the bottoms of dredges (and rivers). These rivers directly feed the drinking water system. Regular tests show no significant or detremental levels of mercury in any of the connected systems, or the fish coming from these rivers. Maybe the difference in inertness of liquid mercury versus mercury salts isn't understood by the activists. Hybrid modules are often soldered with a higher melting point alloy so that the leads can be soldered without melting the internal connections. This has often been a sensitive process since the internal parts are subjected to higher temperatures. Semiconductor failure rates and permanent parameter degradation increase exponentially with temperature, causing hybrids to have lower (sometimes unacceptable) residual failure rates and performance. Raising the soldering temperatures will make this significantly worse, as this is already often on the edge. I think I am going to stock up on some 63/37 rosin core solder for home use while it can still be bought. I just hope they don't send me to jail someday for possessing illegal substances, or dealing in it if I fix someone's antique radio without a special HazMat liscense! Don't get me wrong. It's good we don't breathe massive quantities of carbontetrachloride any more, or dust huge acreage with tons of chlordane. Sure, you probably shouldn't paint the baby's bedposts with something toxic, but what about the bottoms of boats an buoys where you need to keep barnacles from growing? The meat bees (yellow jackets; wasps) were especially bad this year. The only thing that ever really worked was a granulated poison you put into a small amount to meat (catfood, tuna, etc.) in a protective feeder. The wasps took it back to their nest and did the trick with extremely little poison in a very short time. Its now illegal in California, so this summer I have seen nearly a dozen people stung, compared to past years in which there were essentially zero. How many people with bee allergies have been hospitalized or killed by this stupidity? We need a balance. Maybe this pison was being used too widely for commercial agriculture, but this was a very small use. Common sense no longer prevails; only invasive legislation promulgated by special interests for political purposes and applied indescriminantly in expensive and detrimental ways. The debateable growth in the ozone hole accompanying the South Atlantic Anomaly was arguably not a beneficial ecological change, and was possibly exacerbated by increases in chlorine and fluorine making their way into the upper atmosphere. However, it must be noted that 1) this all happened just as the patents for a wide range of these "freons" (containing bound chlorofluorocarbons) were expiring, 2) some of the most vocal advocate were the chemical companies owning these patents, and 3) these same chemical companies just "happened" to have a new line of refrigerant gasses (already newly patented) which could save the planet. So what was the total integrated cost to the public (you and I) in forcing rapid conversion of preexisting refrigeration systems over to the new refrigerant gasses? A lot of fortunes were made by this premeditated manipulation. Change can be good provided premature acceleration does not bring other serious problems. Jeff Condit ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bagotronix Tech Support" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Protel EDA Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 2:20 PM Subject: Re: [PEDA] tests for Pb in solder > > One last thought, several people have pointed out that certain classes of > > equipment will be exempt i.e. Military, medical etc but if all the > assemble > > companies have switched to lead free who is still going to do lead based > > assembly (and at what premium)? I know that once we have gone lead free we > > will probably never be able/ willing to go back. > > "Lead-ful" is a term I've coined for lead-containing PCB assemblies. As > opposed to "lead-free". > > I think lead-ful will become a manufacturing niche. The article that Dennis > posted a link to predicts that many shops will go out of business if they > don't change to lead-free. However, it could go the opposite way. Those > lead-ful shops may experience a solid market niche for all of those > automotive, industrial, and military items for which one wants to risk > failure. It will make obtaining components more difficult, however, and > there will be entire categories of components that will not be usable in > lead-ful assemblies because they only come in lead-free versions. For > example, want to use that nice new ARM chip in your embedded design? Forget > it, it's available only in lead-free finish. Want to use that cool new > 20-bit audio codec? Nope, it only comes in lead-free. > > Still lead-ful and loving it... > > Best regards, > Ivan Baggett > Bagotronix Inc. > website: www.bagotronix.com > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Peter Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "'Protel EDA Forum'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 3:52 AM > Subject: Re: [PEDA] tests for Pb in solder > > > > My last email seemed to take over 12 hours to appear on the list, if this > > one is the same its going to be a slow conversation :-o > > > > >You're right, I haven't noticed the difference in a measly 3-4 years. > > > > I agree with your thoughts but it does indicate that it's not a complete > > disaster. I know several people with Sony TV's that are over 20 years old > > and still going strong, I hope Sony (and the others) are convinced that > the > > change will not affect the long term reliability. > > > > >I like Sony VCRs (VHS, not Beta) because they are easy to setup and > > >program. > > >But it seems they've given me a reason not to buy anymore. > > > > Again I agree but you will find that any stuff made in Japan is now > probably > > lead free and they are starting to spread, a quick search on Goggle > > yesterday indicated that a couple of Sony plants in Mexico are also > > completely lead free and have been for several years. > > > > One last thought, several people have pointed out that certain classes of > > equipment will be exempt i.e. Military, medical etc but if all the > assemble > > companies have switched to lead free who is still going to do lead based > > assembly (and at what premium)? I know that once we have gone lead free we > > will probably never be able/ willing to go back. > > > > Regards, > > Peter Smith > > > > Raster Vision Ltd > > Unit 1 > > Crundalls > > Gedges Hill > > Matfield > > Tonbridge > > Kent > > UK > > TN12 7EA > > > > emal: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > tel: +44 (0) 1892 722 228 > > fax: +44 (0) 1892 724 228 > > > > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
