I posted a rebuttal to this article as it implied everything was peachy keen.  It certainly is not the case at the present time. 

-Bob Landman/H&L
 
Electronics makers turning green and benefitting
<http://greenerworking.com/electronics-makers-turning-green-and-benefitting>
January 7, 2010 by Tom Guay 

Who’ll be the real change agent to force green innovations throughout the marketplace? Surprise, it’s not EPA. 

Instead, manufacturers are forcing their suppliers to go green, and those suppliers will find themselves adopting eco-friendly business practices well before EPA gets around to forcing these dramatic market changes.

That’s the take home in a new Frost & Sullivan analysis <http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/report-brochure.pag?id=D1CE-01-00-00-00>  of the electronics manufacturing industry and how it’s forcing its supply chain to go green. And, this industry is making the switch to beef up its green credentials without compromising its business needs and development. The go-green push seems only win/win, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Some of the changes adopted by the electronics industry include switching to:

*	lead-free solder and other electronic components
*	halogen-free flame retardants, and
*	products that are easier to recycle.

These changes enhance a manufacture’s greeniness. But more importantly, they cut operating costs because eliminating reliance on hazardous materials eliminates the costly regulatory liabilities associated with their use.

For example, by converting to lead-free solder, manufacturers no longer have to deal with costly hazardous waste regulations that control disposal of lead wastes. These changes save money for the facilities.

Electronics manufacturers are also adopting clean delivery and waste minimization strategies, such as reducing packaging needed to ship a product.

These changes all contribute to reduce a company’s energy consumption, which cuts costs and lowers related air pollutant emissions, particularly greenhouse gas releases.

One Response to “Electronics makers turning green and benefitting”


1.	Robert J. Landman <http://www.hlinstruments.com/>  Says: 
	January 8th, 2010 at 2:26 pm <http://greenerworking.com/electronics-makers-turning-green-and-benefitting/comment-page-1#comment-3310>  

	The use of consumer lead-free electronics in products whose life-cycle includes operation in and through harsh environments, poses technical risks that can lead to degraded reliability and reduced lifetimes. Quantification of these technical risks within valid statistical confidence bounds remains a significant gap. Further reliability data is needed on the performance of lead-free solders in order to unite the existing prediction methodologies, and provide acceptable modeling accuracy. 

	The spectrum of gaps that exist in the current body of knowledge on Pb-free electronics is considerable, despite considerable research being done to find a replacement for lead in tin-lead solder. As an example, it is a proven fact that removal of lead from tin based solder (and all solders being used today are tin-based) allows the growth of tin whiskers which short electrical circuits. Without lead in the solders, the joints are more brittle, more subject to fracture when subjected to mechanical stress (vibration and shock). See http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/index.html Scientists do not yet understand why lead suppresses tin whisker growth so the search for an acceptable replacement remains elusive.

	Until a replacement is found, there remains unacceptable risks imposed by lead-free electronics in high reliability, high-performance applications, especially in extreme environments such as aircraft, submarines, and military weapon systems. Until the risks become fully articulated, quantified, and bounded by hard numbers to ensure viable product design, manufacturing, test, delivery and maintenance and longevity of such products at an affordable cost, the use of commercial off-the-shelf lead-free components (COTS) cannot occur.

	It is a goal the aerospace, defense and high performance/high reliability industries are working to achieve but it will take many more years of research to reach.

 

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