[sdiy] Thoughts on RoHS

[Joe Grisso]

On 4/30/07, Steve Lenham <lenham at clara.co.uk> wrote:
> From: "Keith Winstanley" <keithw at cix.compulink.co.uk>
>
> > as I cycled in to work today I spotted about 5 lead wheel balance
> > weights on the roads; probably more lead that in all my modulars.
> > What's this RoHS actually achieving apart from suppression on small
> > scale industry?
>
> No offence (and apologies that this has little to do with SDIY), but that is
> the classic excuse for inaction on any tricky subject nowadays - "Because we
> can't achieve perfection instantly, we shouldn't bother making any
> improvements at all".
>
> Most progress inconveniences somebody. Back in the 1800s, somebody probably
> said:
>
> "As I took the carriage to work today, I spotted about five ragged African
> fellows shining shoes for a pittance; probably more than I ever had working
> on my farm. What's this ban on slavery actually achieving apart from
> suppression of small scale industry"

    Cute. I love that analogy! I keep wondering what all the hubbub is
over RoHS vs. non-RoHS components, other than folks having to kit out
their workshop and parts bins again with non-leaded material and
change out a soldering tip. I've found that the transition to RoHS is
fairly easily managed, unless some unobtanium is involved (CEMs,
etc.). At work, RoHS adds a little more paperwork, but in essence it's
nothing more than a "This product complies with RoHS guidelines, blah
blah blah" disclaimer and a detailed BOM of all the parts that go into
the product should an audit be performed. As long as all the raw
materials coming in are RoHS compliant, the final product is too.
     The largest impact I've directly dealt with is managing our
soldering stations during the transition. We literally had to have a
"red" station, where everything was leaded and had the lower
temperature settings, and a "green" station that soldered at higher
temps and had non-leaded solder and rework tools. This wasn't for
compliance, but merely because if you used the RoHS irons on some
non-RoHS chips you'd break the wire bonding inside some ICs and
components due to the increased temperature needed to solder with SnAg
rather than PbSn.
     I also keep a minimum of parts on hand in my home workshop, so
going RoHS isn't a big financial outlay for me. I did the same thing
at work - got new soldering tools (amounted to a different tip for my
metcal, a new solder spool, desolder pump, and solder wick) and was
ready to go.

So, where's the complication again? I'm doing fine with regards to
RoHS, and I've got 2-3 products coming out this year.

Best Regards,

Joe Grisso
Detachment 3 Engineering