Lead-free solder legislation UK

Hi all,

does anyone know the ins and outs of the new lead-free solder legislation?
If we buy a big stockpile of 'proper' solder, will we allowed to use it after the legislation comes in (ie. it becomes illegal to buy/sell but you can use your existing stock 'til it's gone) or will it be illegal to actually USE lead/tin solder after the deadline?

What if we need to repair something that was wired with lead/tin... would we have to de- and re-solder using the unleaded stuff?

Phil

Good question. I haven't tried the lead-free solder yet, but i've heard it's not that fun.

Another thing that I've noticed is that when I have used the soldering iron for more than, say, four or five hours I get some wierd red eczema on my hands. Maybe changing to some helthier solder would help. Has anyone else experienced to same thing?

/Anders

For!!!! Without a doubt!!!

We HAVE to take care of our environment, it is nothing we can have a personal interest in. We are already VERY late when it comes to many of these things, and some govermants are just not giving a shit.

I am from sweden but have benn living in London for 5 years. I can't beleive how little this goverment is doing to improve on pollution and toxic wastes. And I hear them again and again on television saying that they are a leading coiuntry in that field!!! Lying the voters right up in their faces... as usual. And sweden is definetely not the best country in the world, germany for example is doing MUCH better.

I am not active in any of these questions, but living abroad has taught me that we can't really discuss these things, it just has to get done. That's one good thing about unions like the EU, we can force countries to have the same rules. It doesn't really help if a small country is doing all that they can and paying for it when the big boys don't care anyway.

And by the way... I love britain, that's why I am living here... no offence... it is just the environment thing

Robert

i think the legilsation is aimed at selling of goods with lead solder...
as i read it... you can stock up on as much lead solder as you want ... but...
come jan 1st - you cannot sell any product with lead solder in it

secondly...
Whoever in the organisation is responsible for purchasing is liable from a health and safety point of view for the safety of the products
so .. if you decide to stock up on lead solder and one of your staff gets ill due to lead poisoning... guess who gets sent to court and is personally liable?
Note - this is retrospective... 60 years down the line....

I think rules like this are sometime necessary to create the demand for better products. Once the demand is there, plenty of chemists will try to make the best lead-free solder and patent the recipe.

If humans can send a weird parachuting remote controlled buggy to land on Mars and take a look around, ferchristsake we can make a decent lead-free solder with all the right properties.

For the sake of our own planet, I say "Bring on the change!"

Too bad my government doesn't agree.

[quote author="electronaut"]
If humans can send a weird parachuting remote controlled buggy to land on Mars and take a look around, ferchristsake we can make a decent lead-free solder with all the right properties.
[/quote]

I hope that buggy was made with lead free solder... don't want to start polluting other planets as well :grin:

Whilst i do strongly accept the need to restrict Lead pollution, and wholeheartedly welcome the use of lead free solder in comercial construction with solder baths etc, I cannot think that the small amount that I use at home or at work is that significant. i find that the new stuff is wholely unacceptible. i was taught that a solder joint should be shiny and bright, not dull and crystalline, almost non-metal. Tin can exist in a metalic and a non metalic state, and the latter is not much use to me! Using solder does not "add" extra lead to the environment, it has always been there. It just moves it around. Where lead occurs naturally in the world, it is very concentrated, and also very poisonous! I can think of numerous beautyspots that my father and i used to visit to find Galena and other naturally occuring lead ores. The concentration of lead there must be over the scale! When i use solder, it is me and me alone that is exposed to the fumes.


Blah!

Andy P

This reminds me of something I saw on the discovery Channel a while ago... I can't recall exactly where, but at a military shooting range somewhere in the midwestern U.S. there was so much lead in the area from all of the bullets they had to close the facility and and bring in an environmental team to clean it up... They now make "green" lead free bullets...

But, as far as lead free solder goes... for most of us there are no concerns... but if you soldered for many hours every day for many many years it is possible that the lead count in your body would eventually reach a toxic level. I know some people who do stained glass work that can no longer work with lead because they have reached a level of toxicity. Though, they use ALOT more lead than in any solder we would use... I've not tried lead free solder ( and I don't know that I will unless the US gov't changes some things) but I am sure someone will come up with a good lead free solder...

[quote author="Viitalahde"]My probelems with solder seem to be mostly about the hot fumes irritating my nose. :? But I do love the smell of the solder..[/quote]
That was me totally, when I did repair work for a living, I used to get a horrible big spot/boil on the side of my nose (where it joins the face) if I spent a whole day with the soldering iron, but I don't think thats anything to do with the lead, more the flux.

So whats next? Have they stripped all the lead of church roofs yet?

No biggy from a DIY standpoint. One roll of solder last's me about ten years, at least.

Stupid to even think that lead free should only be for commercial businesses!

And if there should be any difference, the paperwork to decide who is who etc would be soooo big that we would go nowhere, and there would be holes in the system that people wuld use.

It is thoughts like that that make us go nowhere... if we don't all give in why bother at all!

Robert

It's like driving through the countryside and saying, "This bag of MacDonald's fast food trash is pretty insignificant... It's okay to throw it out the window."

Regardless of what kind of solder you want to use, a lot of the components that are shipping now are lead-free certified..... And with Digikey/Mouser sometimes it's hard to tell what you're going to get.

Remember that pure tin will grow wiskers and short out the lead
next to it.
You are saying how does this effect me?

The failure of the Galaxy 4 satellite was thought due to tin migration.

The Mexican Solidaridad 1 satellite also built by Hughes
Both had a failures in their Spacecraft Control Processor they have 2 on board one as a spare.
Tin whiskers are thought to be the root cause in all 4 processors.

http://www.sourceesb.com/configurable/article20050209.html

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0008/29solidaridad1/

In the USA Telcomm has till 2010 to be complient.
The miltary does not have to comply.

Do a search on "RoHS"

Personally I`m quite happy to use lead free solder. I feel sure that they will develop new solder that will be every bit as good as lead solder.

i post about non-toxic solder and Americans scoff. UK'ers recieve legislation about it !

Click to expand...

Its funny how the "US goverment" always seem to back out of world polution matters saying that it would affect their national security to comply.
No offence meant to our US citizen contributors out there !


I used to work for a US owned audio cable manufacturer in the UK who will remain nameless. Making up looms, mic & guitar cables etc. I know over here in the UK they have quite strict regulations about fume extraction for places where soldering is done all day long. I mentioned this to the American production manager when he was over & he said that they were all legal. I`m fairly sure that the health & safety inspectors would close the place down if they went in there. It seems like things are definately less stringent in the US.

I used to have to do quite a lot of heatshrinking there as well, like an hour at a time. The fumes from the heatshrink used to make me light headed to say the least. I`m sure I lost a few brain cells in that place.

No offense taken, whatsoever.

Actually, the U.S. government blew off the Kyoto protocol not due to national security, but because it would be bad for the economy!

That's a way more pathetic excuse to ignore global environmental problems than even national security.

Both are pretty bad reasons to continue polluting, shamelessly.

check this article out.. there is a shorter version in the new Farnell catalog, page 1806 book 2 (dutch edition).. it actaully states that lead-free solder gives different but better joints.
the biggest problem however seems that lead free solder has a higher melting temperature than regular 60/40 solder.. (lead-free: 227ºC vs 60/40 180ºC). could be a problem..

article

adios,
corneel

The fact of the matter is that the US government doesn't care about anyone other than the wealthy US citizens that pay their salaries and give them their campaign donations. Don't get me wrong, I think that there are a lot of people in government who would like to make a change for the better, but how often do you see any of them stick their neck out to make a difference? The current government is a joke at best, and they really could not care less about the environment. I'm sure Bush jr. takes his used 9 volt batteries and just burries them in the back yard. After all, if it costs him an extra 30 seconds to dispose of them properly, than the terrorists win.

Oh, and I have lived in the US all of my life, and I must say that if you need proof that the politics here are a joke, look no further than the governator in California who proudly drives around in his Hummer. That's caring for the environment.

"Ozone layer, you have been Terminated!"

Forgive me if this has been mentioned here before -- I can't remember where I read this, but a company called Johnson Manufacturing seems to be leading the way in developing new solder technologies.

They have many lead free solder products. They even have one that is specified for audio use, the "OR-120". They may know their markets, however... the flux might be made of C37 or something.

This is spooky

About 11 months ago I bought a reel of lead solder from RS. This morning in the post out of the blue they sent me a Material Safety Data Sheet for it. This document is 7 pages long.

In the toxilogical information it says the it "Contains materials which over exposure to will cause damage to the following organs: Blood, Kidneys,Gastrointestinal tract, upper respitory tract, skin, nervous sytem, eye, lens or cornea"

"Certain individuals may develop eczema or asthmaon exposure to this material"

This is enlightening because I started getting eczema when I worked making cables.