Is the LEAD out yet?

Let’s talk for a moment about those exempt industries, those folks that produce the medical, aerospace and defense items that do not fall under the RoHS ban. The products which they produce must have very high reliability, for extended years, pressures and temperature, and cannot have a chance of not working due to whisker growth. This is a “no-brainer” on custom made parts for those industries:  just plate them with old 60/40 tin-lead. There is a small rub, however. Many parts used by the exempt industries have been certain “off the shelf” items, manufactured by reliable companies, tested and used in medical or military items. In other words everything going into these products was not “custom” made and “custom plated”. Will these companies now maintain two types of stock, with and without lead? An article (4/27/06) in Electronic News states, “We’ve already seen a little bit of end-of-life notices from suppliers who are phasing out non-compliant parts”. 
  
As a result of these non-exempt companies’ efforts (removal of lead bearing solder), exempt companies are making efforts to mitigate their concerns and try to find a way to live with the problem. There are many efforts going on by Associations such as iNEMI and JEDEC to create standards that are meaningful and helpful to industry. Their efforts have resulted in two documents JESD201 and JP002 that pertain to whisker formation and mitigation. 
  
After all of this discussion, where does Anoplate fit into the picture? Various solutions that will work for any application are available. You, our customer, must help us determine the final deposit that we plate for you and the potential risk. Several lead bearing solder deposits are plated daily. Pure tin and tin doped with bismuth are lead free options. For a discussion of whiskers and their growth contact Mandy in our sales office and she can forward some back Anoplate News issues that cover the history of whiskers. There is also a discussion on our WEB site (anoplate.com).  To get an outside view on the potential trouble in the use of pure tin, check out the NASA WEB (nepp.nasa.gov/whisker) site pertaining to tin whiskers. Just scroll to whisker failures and you will find references to commercial satellite, medical and military failures. Anoplate is justly proud that one of our Anoplate News articles is posted on this NASA WEB site.

To discuss RoHS, tin whiskers or any other metal finishing application you have, please feel free to call or e-mail Anoplate at: 315-471-6143; sales@anoplate.com.