So far a lot of boards have needed changes just to make them lead free.
several of our older boards now need completely re doing because they were done that long ago & by the oldest predecessor of this job that either there is no CAD data available or the artworks are massive & falling apart.

In fact I have an artwork set for 1 board, that I have many different variations of CAD data for, yet all seem to be wrong to the actual board so these artworks are our ONLY available data for getting new boards and I shall be using armed security guards to ensure I get them returned :)

Many times a component would change slightly so that it can be manufactured for lead free. Not ALL components will stay exactly the same as much as we would like to think they will.

I.E. the Omron G5SB relay, it's predecessor had smaller contact pins than its lead free replacement & Omron went & made a full stop on the original relay before we managed to get enough to see us for enough time to modify the boards over a period of time. I now have to modify several boards to have bigger PTH holes & pads.

ALL boards will at least need a review, would you leave the technical decisions on what component is suitable, fits exactly & can go through the processes AND not be from known rubbish components up to a company buyer without having some technical expertise on the matter?

Our buyers buy everything the company needs so are not exactly electronic experts (otherwise they would be working up here in the lab :-) ).

As for reworking the artworks, although there will be many that need no rework, they at least need a review of if they do/do not.

There are manufacturing problems with the lead free alternatives like Sterling Silver (TM) in that when applying the usual peelable resist at the last stage it would tarnish it, so we needed a new peelable resist, which needed input from me to determine how we were going to mask pads in the mean time before a solution was found.

All my boards have manufacturing drawings on them that specify the finishes, if the purchasing dept want to shift to an alternative supplier I need to modify that drawing to make it a lead free finish only.

Can I now put on my Cv that I can "design boards lead free" although just techno bull that goes without saying, it does sound better on a CV to be up with the new requirements. ;-)

Matthew Lamkin.

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