Edward, > This is very much on our doorstep. The Dept. of Trade and Industry > over here, actively support the lead free ban for 2004, as per EU > proposal. Nick Jolly's words at a recent meeting at NPL were (approximately) "The minister has told me we have to take a neutral line.". What the DTI are doing actively however is spread the word and help the industry prepare. > Better get hold of lots of indium, or get into bed with a > supplier of a patented complex ternary alloy. Or conductive epoxy, or > one of the numerous higher Melting Point alloys............... There isn't anything like enough indium (or silver for conductive epoxy for that matter) to go round. My bet at the moment is for the main constituents of a "mainstream" lead free alloy being tin and copper. David Whalley ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################