Bev I have never tried lead free solders with nickel, but my experience with tin lead was a disaster. Years ago a "noted soldering expert" suggest that nickel coated features on PCBs would be all the rage. Fortunately we found early on in some lab experiments it passivates in half a heart beat. Some others were less fortunate. Best regards Lee J. L. Parker Ph. D. JLP Consultants LLC 804 779 3389 ----- Original Message ----- From: Bev Christian<mailto:[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 7:41 PM Subject: [TN] Nickel - again Technetters, Have any of you had any experience with trying to solder tin-based solders to uncoated nickel? What kind of flux did you use? Do you know if the joints had long term reliability, not just appearing to be "strong" joints right after formation? What about negative wetting angles causing possible stress concentration points? Bev RIM --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives<http://listserv.ipc.org/archives> Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16<http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16> for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------