Wonder why lead is banned:
http://www.newark.com/services/rohs/lead.htmlIn short, it is because after your MOTM module goes into a landfill, the
lead could leach into drinking water and hence could poison people. PC
boards have a relatively short lifetime before being scrapped. (Synth
boards have some of the longest life spans, no doubt.) It makes you
wonder whether it would be more efficient to seal the landfills than to
change the manufacturing process in thousands of manufacturing plants
around the globe. Landfills leach plenty of other bad stuff besides
lead, too.
Are we hobbyists in danger from lead poisoning because we solder our own
boards? It is a quantitative question about how much lead might enter
our bodies from soldering. I suspect the answer for the amount of
soldering most of use do is: very little. Some of what I have read
regarding lead solder danger refers to solder in plumbing or in cans of
food -- in proximity to a consumable substance. It is an ecological
bio-hazard problem the ROHS is directed at. I use a fan to blow the
smoke away when I solder. But this ROHS directive is aiming elsewhere
than my soldering station.
It is too bad that such big governmental directives targetting large
manufacturers, who produce the goods in pollution quantity, also impact
small businesses like Oakley and SynthTech. Since it really is a
quantitative issue, the laws could provide exemption for low-volume
manufacturers.
-Richard Brewster
PQ wrote:
> >Gold "flashing" has been around 30 years, that's no big deal except
> >gold plating itself is a ∗butt nasty∗ operation and many pc board
> >suppliers charge accordingly. There are several tin-based pcb
> >technologies, but some of them have a definite 'shelf-life' (there is
>a >finite time from when you unseal the boards to soldering, like say 2
> >weeks)
>
>The gold plating and RoHS compliance have also currently created all
>sorts of problems due to mixing technologies during this transition
>period. At work we're currently having to remove a whole mess of gold
>plated parts, dip the leads, and replace them because of a gold
>embrittlement issue that can lead to bad joints a few years down the
>road. Time will have to be allowed past the July date for the learning
>curve and tooling up and getting the right materials in place after the
>learning curve. Lead was sooo easy :-( (But on the other hand, my
>Father in Law ended up dying from Parkinson's, they say, due to the
>amount of lead he handled over his lifetime, he was a printer).
>Take care, PQ
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>