Editor's Note: Get the lead out

The electronics industry is under the gun. Governments are exerting pressure on manufacturers to remove lead from the solder that forms the core (pun intended) of our technology.

The rationale for such demands is open to question. Our industry contributes barely one half of 1% of environmental lead. The largest single source is the lead-acid batteries in vehicles, and I see no clamor to replace them. Of course, there are more drivers to object to expensive and inefficient alternatives than there are electronics manufacturers.

Failing any attempt at policy change, the challenge remains to find a suitable alternative. Experts have written papers and given seminars on that very subject. The issues include higher melting points that could cause damage to underlying boards and greater brittleness, possibly reducing long-term reliability of lead-free-solder-based products.

Users of x-ray inspection systems must wonder whether their systems will become little more than expensive paperweights. Fortunately, that will not happen. Makers of x-ray systems assure users that bismuth and other heavy metals can be just as opaque to x-rays as lead. At worst, systems will require hardware or software adjustments.

One parting thought: The arguments for eliminating solder lead are allegedly environmental in nature. Governments appear not to have noticed that substitutes such as bismuth and cadmium are more toxic than the lead that they are intended to replace. Fortunately, solder won't use much of those metals either. We will leave that, too, for the batteries.

Contact Steve Scheiber at sscheiber@aol.com .