If you’ve been cowering inside a reflow oven lately, I’ll remind you that, to date, the RoHS is the only piece of legislation that actively bans lead (and other so-called hazardous substances) in electronic solders, while the WEEE initiative requires recycling of electronics parts, goods and systems.

Once you know understand that, the trick is then ensuring your processes and products are in compliance—and fast. July 1, 2006, is the Day of Reckoning, in which thou shalt ensure thine products containeth no hazardous substances. Or thou shalt be pulverized in Europe. Yea, The Market hath spoken.

Did North America wait too long to jump onboard the lead-free thrill ride? Some in the industry have suggested that the early debates that occurred in the U.S. at trade shows, in magazine editorials, and in heated face-to-face confrontations over the viability of lead-free materials were time wasters. Instead of fighting over the validity of lead free, North America should have been collectively formulating a proactive lead-free roadmap with its own legislation.

Yeah, well, hindsight is always 20/20. No doubt, those debates drained a lot of energy. But they were also valiant. They were an excellent exercise in determining that not all lead-free materials themselves are environmentally friendly; they also showed us the rough economic impact that the change to lead free is going to make for those already struggling in the North American electronics marketplace.

So, is North America in serious trouble? Not entirely. All along, organizations such as the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI, Herndon, VA) have been performing research on best-fit lead-free alloys for reflow soldering [Sn3.9Ag0.6Cu (+/- 0.2%)] and for wave soldering (Sn0.7Cu) and, what a concept, figuring out just exactly what part and how much of a lead-free product has to be lead free.

Is North America out of the woods yet? Not by a long shot. Industry organizations still have a lot of work to do, which won’t happen overnight. Recall that the mature processes used with eutectic solder have had 30 years or so to perfect themselves, and we still can’t get PCB assembly production right all the time. Last time I visited a facility (this month), rework operators still had stacks of boards to repair, and test and inspection equipment in many different forms were in full swing.

Whatever the challenges with “normal” manufacturing processes, lead-free manufacturing exacerbates certain problems such as tin whiskers that aren’t typically found with the use of eutectic solder. According to NEMI, “pure tin coatings may have a tendency to grow small filaments known as whiskers that could bridge adjacent terminals, causing system failures.” In response, the organization has three projects currently working on this phenomenon: one examines accelerated test to predict tin whiskers; one focuses on modeling to understand the root cause of whiskers; and, finally, the third NEMI project is a practical user group, which is addressing how high-reliability, long-life systems, and critical applications will be affected by tin whiskers.

So, the North American industry seems to be in motion, helping itself deal with the bad hand of cards it’s being forced to play. I was encouraged recently by a reader of Circuits Assembly who let me know that her small company in Elgin, IL, was one of the first PCB manufacturers in the U.S. to actively use lead-free hot air solder leveling in its board fabrication process. She related that, after many late nights and much testing, her company now provides boards with a lead-free finish that is “a smooth, bright, relatively flat coating and clears easily from through holes, while leaving sufficient thickness of coating to ensure solderability for at least one year.”

Lastly, she wrote that she wanted to thank her customers for forcing her, as company president, to address the lead-free onslaught head-on. The Market hath spoken again. Let’s hope all of North America is listening.