Hi IPC-LF Listservers, and Paul,

Paul did a great job in quoting the Directives,
Thanks to Paul.

Here are my thoughts to your questions.

<Just two questions:
<
<Do I understand that medical, industrial control, and defense
<products are exempted from EU lead free directives because there
<may be some question about lead free solder reliability and about
<the reliability of components and systems subjected to lead free
<solder reflow temperature stresses?
<

WernerE can correct me, yet YES it is commonly known that LF or
LeadFree will have reduced Reliability due to a number of reasons.
A metallurgical growth problem called Tin Whiskers is one of the
concerns for Long (greater than 8 or 10 years) life products.
A web site and forum exists to discuss this issue.

<If so, does this imply that reliability in other electronic
<equipment does not matter, or matter as much as removing this
<grave threat to life-- lead in solder?

Most consumers (except me, and die heart conservationists)
wouldn't be caught keeping a consumer product for 5 years
so it becomes a question of consumer average or statistical
life time. I would guess that some Reliability folks have a
term for this like "Usable Reliability or Functional Reliability
or ???" I don't remember the term..

So for them (the EU Engineering Advisors) to make a distinction
for certain product or equipment categories isn't far out of
line (at least according to my analysis)


YiEngr, MA/NY DDave

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