No Lead Solder: A New World, With New Issues

The business of soldering electronics components to printed circuit boards (PCB's) has come full circle with debates that continue to discuss whether solder flux residues must be removed or if they can be left on the board.

Up until the early 1990's using WAVE soldering techniques and RMA solder, it was commonly accepted that boards had to be cleaned to ensure that corrosive nature of flux and other associated issues did not create latent field failures. As the industry began to shift to SMT manufacturing and converted to "no clean" solder pastes due to the elimination of CFC113 (Freon) and the pending phase out of TRI 1,1,1 and HCFC141b (Genesolv), it was generally considered that no additional cleaning was required and the fluxes that remained on the board were benign.

Today, the industry is still using "no clean" solders pastes but the European Union's "Restrictions on Hazardous Substances" (RoHS) is forcing any company doing business in Europe to use "lead free" solder and be compliant by July 1st, 2006. Despite numerous and well documented process difficulties associated with " no lead" soldering such as tin whiskering, board delamination and other major concerns, flux residues concerns with both paste formats are becoming bigger issues in high reliability applications such as servers and RF based products.

Gem Craft Chemical has been working diligently with new and existing customers to determine effective chemistry, equipment and process solutions to their problems.  Based on our extensive field experience, we would be happy to assist users with our expertise and offer equipment on trial to as required. In terms of chemistry, we highly recommend AGC's AK-225 group of products as a proven and effective solution to these problems. Contact Gem Craft directly to specifically discuss your requirements and we will gladly assist you to determine the best possible solution!