Pants on the ground, Pants on the ground....... -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Fenner Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:20 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Antimony in solder There are many myths about tin pest, some of them you really want to be true like: the reason Napoleon lost against the Russians was that the French Uniform buttons were made of tin, they succumbed to tin pest and their trousers all fell down...... Our European office gets about 3 tin pest questions a year, but it never is. The failures are due to more boring things like poor wetting, inappropriate joint design and so on. Or sometimes people report tin pest when they mean tin whiskers. NPL here did look into this quite thoroughly. You can get their report on line, a very nice piece of science. More dramatically satisfying you can see video from their research showing tin pest eating a lump of tin. They concluded tin pest was not a worry and so far as I know there has NEVER been a proven case of tin pest in electronics. Presence or absence of 0.X%Sb in tin is not significant compared to ~40% Pb. Possibly the Sb made the solder harder/stronger, but more likely other changes were made as indicated above. Regards Mike Mike Fenner, Technical Manager Indium Corporation Europe Mob: + 44 7810 526 317 Skype: mike.fenner Tel: + 44 1908 580 400 Fax: + 44 1908 580 411 www.indium.com --------------------- Indium Corporation Incorporated in New York, USA Registered office: (Not for correspondence) 77-97 Harpur Street, Bedford , UK Registered number: fc16473 * Please think before you print -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roberts, Jon (SA-1) Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 4:35 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Antimony in solder I was always trained during my early years working with the Cat A under the WS6536, DoD Std 2000, etc days that Bev stated to reduce tin pest. I was informed that during the cold war in the 70's that line of radars were installed in the northern part of Canada to detect incoming missiles attacks. The extreme cold temperature caused solder failures related to tin pest or was attributed to tin pest. I believe my Cat A without question. Anyone else remember being told that? I am one of the older ones here. Jon -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bev Christian Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 9:56 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Antimony in solder Graham, I think it was historically added because of a fear of tin pest. Which is weird since lead is an excellent deterrent to tin pest. Bev -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nigel Burtt Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 10:51 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Antimony in solder Antimony affects wetting speed Useful reference here: http://www.kester.com/en-us/documentation/EffectsofMetallicImpurities.pd f Nigel --------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- This transmission (including any attachments) may contain confidential information, privileged material (including material protected by the solicitor-client or other applicable privileges), or constitute non-public information. 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