Re: [greenyes] Lead-free solder and electronics lifecycle

[Ted Smith <tsmith@no.address>]

EPA's Design for the Environment project has been assessing the 
alternatives to lead in electronics for the past few years.
their work is available at http://www.epa.gov/dfe/projects/solder/
there are several alternatives to lead that are available, some are more 
environmentally benign than others and some have better performance than other
while much work has gone into developing effective alternatives within 
industry, there are some who still would prefer lead
and there are some exceptions to the EU lead free rules for some 
specialized applications (including some military applications)

Ted Smith


At 10:49 AM 4/25/2005, Doug Koplow wrote:
> I was speaking with a product engineer yesterday who said that the current 
> lead-free substitutes for solder do not perform very well.  He said that 
> meeting the EU guidelines to get the lead out will greatly shorten the 
> service life for many consumer durables that contain circuit boards -- 
> obviously not a desirable environmental outcome.
>
> Does anybody on the list know about this issue?  Are there technologies 
> close to commercialization that are both lead-free and very long-lasting?
>
> _______________________________
> Doug Koplow
> Earth Track, Inc.
> 2067 Massachusetts Avenue - 4th Floor
> Cambridge, MA  02140
> www.earthtrack.net
> Tel:  617/661-4700
> Fax: 617/354-0463
>
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Ted Smith
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition/Computer TakeBack Campaign
760 N. First Street, San Jose, CA 95112
408-287-6707-phone;  408-287-6771-fax
http://www.svtc.org/ http://www.computertakeback.com