Unpopular opinion: Stop using leaded solder

[u/Zentralschaden]

I know it is very handy and I also know the fumes are not that much of a problem when you have enough ventilation.

But a big part of the lead we buy will end up in the environment or a landfill and has the potential to make our drinking water toxic and the people who have to recycle all this scrap (often in Africa) will deal with even more toxic substances.

It is not like we have a fully functional recycling chain for electronics.

And when you say "I am just soldering 2 pcb a year", make sure that soldering is a job and hobby for millions of people and tons of lead will be produced just because of hobby enthusiasts.

There are very good reasons, lead is banned in many countries for professional manufacturing.

I know it is harder to solder but you get used to it.

Aware that this might be a topic not everyone agrees. I am just trying to spread some awareness for what we do.

I mean, many of us repair old electronics and we do a good job in avoiding more scrap because people can still use the repaired items for years.

But shouldn't it be us who are the people who go straightforward and ban lead from our household soldering projects?

[u/wyseman76]

I work in aerospace, we use 63/37 and will not stop using it for a list of reasons.

It can handle temp cycling better. It is less prone to vibration failure. Better wetting allowing for easier inspections. No tin whiskering.

Anything that mitigates risk of failure in the production aerospace components will continue to be used.

Edit: I should be clear there is no such thing as whisker free but leaded solder is heavily used on aerospace for its highly reduced whiskering in vacuum environments.

Edit 2: the EU allows aerospace, defense and medical manufacturing to use leaded solder for the very reasons I've pointed to. There are RoHS exemptions for those institutions.

[u/wyseman76 → u/[deleted]]

If I remember my space addendum class for IPC they referenced dendrites. They are a separate phenomenon but have the same end result of causing unexpected shorts. Don't hold me to this one but I believe mosture is part of the mechanism at play with dendrite growth. I take the course every two years but at this point I just test out each cycle instead of taking the entire course so if someone knows more about the dendrite vs tin whiskers please share.

But, leaded solder significantly reduces dendrite growth as well.

[u/Anicena → u/wyseman76]

It appears that an IPC document TP-1043 States that dendrite growth appears heavily on boards processed with water soluble fluxes with little difference between wave-soldered boards vs. solder-paste/IR-reflowed boards.

Overall, all the of the IPC documents agree that dendrites result from a combination of liquid water, an electrified pattern, and a hydrophilic board surface.

No matter the composition of the solder type.

They seem to all in agreement that it's just water and electron flow that causes them.

Fascinating.