MOTM

>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