Graham,

I agree with everything Bev said with one clarification, neither the XRF or the swabs are accurate enough to LEGALLY CERTIFY a product is RoHS Pb-Free compliant.  However for manufacturing an XRF is an excellent tool for giving one confidence that the components they are buying and the product they are producing is RoHS Pb-Free.  I've attached a PDF file with XRF spectra of different solders that I obtained from our 12 year old Fischer XDLM-PCB XRF.  I've also copied Steve in hopes he can post the file on his site.  This old XRF which has only a proportional detector cost around $36K and the newer XRF's on the market with solid state detectors are in the $95K range. A spectrum of a material can be obtained with and XRF and it is really quick and easy to look at a spectrum and tell the difference between SnPb solder and Pb-Free solder.  However when you ask an XRF to quantify the spectrum for elements like Sn and Pb and Ag and Cu the software in the XRF will take the spectrum and quantify it for just those elements and the capability of the XRF isn't good enough to accurately determine were low ppm values.  When you look at the attached file you will see the Sn, Ag and Cu peaks in the spectrum of the SAC305 solder.  The quantification is good enough to indicate the spectrum is consistent with SAC305.  However, if you ask the XRF to quantify Sn, Ag, Cu and Pb you find out the XRF indicates the Pb is 0.2% which clearly isn't RoHS Compliant but it is because the XRF isn't accurate enough to LEGALLY CERTIFY the solder is Pb-Free.

Besides checking incoming components for Pb-Free we use the XRF to check solder joints after a hand solder component replacement or repair to.  We do this to insure that the operator actually did use a Pb-Free solder and not a Pb containing solder.  Although the XRF isn't accurate enough to LEGALLY CERTIFY Pb-Free it is certainly capable to determine if a solder joint was contaminated by an operator using a soldering iron from a SnPb line even if they used a Pb-Free solder.

Regards,
George
George M. Wenger
Failure Signature & Characterization Lab LLC
609 Cokesbury Road, High Bridge, NJ 08829
(908) 638-8771 Home  (732) 309-8964 Mobile
E-mail [log in to unmask]
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-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bev Christian
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 9:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] lead free (RoHS) testing in manufacturing

Graham,
You get what you pay for. I recommend a Fischer XDAL.  Oxford has some good offerings, as do Shimadzu and other companies that have been selling XRFs for metal thickness measurements.  If you buy one, make sure you buy one with apertures of the size you need for the leads you will want to take measurements on.  You are looking at at least $50K.  I know one of the Shimadzu ones can pull a vacuum in the chamber which allows you to detect lighter elements than my Fischer, but this is even more $$.

I would NOT recommend a hand held unit, especially for use in Canada. Not only will you have to abide by any provincial legislation, you will also have to comply with the federal Red Act, which is pretty onerous.  Take a course, another course for an instructor with a written test, eye test, color blindness test. I was told these things sequentially by a dealer, NOT up front and when I then said I didn't wan this device, he said since I had accept at our delivery dock a smaller portion of the accessories for the device that if I wanted to "return" the handheld, which I had not actually taken possession of, that there would be a 20% restocking fee - on a $42,000 piece of equipment.  Ouch!

Gabriele has given good advice about the lead swab tests.  Good for a really rough first go, but would never stand up to scrutiny by ECHA.

Way around this?  When you ask for certificates of compliance for the components you buy, demand an accompanying chemical test report that stands behind the CoC. Preferably the report is from somebody like Intertek or SGS.

Regards,
Bev

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Graham Collins
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 2:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] lead free (RoHS) testing in manufacturing

Good day TechNet
We are a late arrival to the lead-free party, as our customers thus far are exempt.  But a couple of them see the writing on the wall and are moving toward RoHS compliance.  Which leads me to two questions with regards to our testing of parts to ensure compliance.

The first question - what XRF?  We are concerned with price given that we are dipping our feet here, does anyone have a recommendation for a good but inexpensive unit?

Second question is concerning alternative test methods, a customer is planning to use 3M LeadCheck swabs (LC-8S10C) to ensure no lead.  Given that the product is described as for use on painted surfaces I don't think this is intended as a way to verify lead-free status on electronics.  Any comments on this?

Thanks!

--
regards,

Graham Collins
Senior Process Engineer
Sunsel Systems
(902) 444-7867 ext 211



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