Hi friends,

No doubt, the new year brings a lot of new item for us model railroaders: new loks , new cars , new layouts , and new regulations from the European Commission (Sorry, no adequate smiley available for this kind of feeling).

The point is: the presently available soldering wire will disappear from market within near future. This is enforced by a new regulation of the EU, which has meanwhile been approved by the most national governments in Europe, more or less without attracting public attention.

As you know, the soldering metal in our loks, cars, and layouts is an alloy of 60 % tin and 40 % lead. As lead is a toxic substance, especially when inhaled with the soldering vapour, the EU enforced that the existing soldering metal must be distracted from market, i.e. the tin-lead-alloy will disappear from the catalogs of the electronics distributors, such as Conrad, Reichelt, Farnell, and others. This is intended as a measure of health protection for employees in electronics industry, where large quantities of soldering metal are processed. As a replacement, a different soldering alloy consisting of 98 % tin and 2 % antimony will be offered. Good thing, in principle.

However, there are some drawbacks:

1. the new soldering alloy cannot be mixed with the old one. That is, you can't repair an existing soldering connection using the new soldering metal. Before you contact a wire or an electronic component at a soldering point of an electronic board using the new alloy, you must first completely remove the old soldering metal in the vicinity of the respective soldering point. May be difficult on a lok decoder, I think. And you can't reuse electronic components that have been in contact with the old alloy.

2. The new alloy requires a higher soldering temperature. With the old alloy, optimal soldering temperatures was 280 - 330 °C. The new alloy requires 350 - 400 °C. It is not clear whether existing electronics components and electronic layout board will withstand this elevated temperature.

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For the time being this all is a case for us european model railroaders, and it does not affect our overseas friends. Allthough one never knows what will happen in the more remote future.

My recommendation: don't forget to order some spare rolls of old electronics soldering wire, as long as it is still available.

Hans Martin

Well, there are exemptions for repair use, so I don't think there will be a total stop.

Also, the tin/antimony solder is just one of several alternatives. There are other types e.g. with tin/silver/copper which can be used together with old types of components. It is not really reliable to mix leaded and lead free components in mass production but in repair work it is OK if you inspect every solder point carefully afterwards.

The higher temperature needed may be a problem with some components, but if you replace a component with a new one, the new one is probably already made for the higher temperature.

Adrian,
GO into Dick Smiths and you will find that the EU has hit Australia.
Very hard to find 60/40 Solder. Most of the Stock was Lead Free.
Nev

We in Norway are not members of EC, but we still need to follow ALL! of their rules! but my local dealer said something about order the solder as a spare part.

There are also regulations in USA as California is pretty stiff. Some of the products only cause cancer in California if you read the label.

I don't think this is as bad as when toxic chemicals were removed from paint. I can't find a yellow that would only require two layers to make a good surface for an example.

Mikko

David, that wasn't me. But your dealer is clever. He reads this forum, tells everyone soldering wire is running short worldwide, and waits that the lead manufacturer's stocks are rising! Hey, must phone my depot manager now...

Hans Martin

Himmel Donnerwetter Hans(which ever one it was). I don't suppose you will be nice to your fellow Märklinists and let us have some?[}:)][:p]
Ira

1 cm, please. They say cost of living will be high in 2006 ... [xx(]

I bought a roll about 2 month's ago, so i got enough for the next 5 years i think :)
Maybee i should go get another roll just to be sure....

Michael

The name of beast causing this commotion is called RoHS, Reduction of Hazardous Substances.

Our company, especially my department, is heavily hit by these new regulations since we sell computer hardware with add-ons... Is that Bluetooth adapter RoHS compliant? The WLAN PC-Card? Our custom assembled products must be compliant after the 1st of July this year... This means the components must also be....

In addition to that, there is a recycling directive too called WEEE (and that's what it is, at least legally.[:p]..)....

I already bought my estimated supply of solder and am set for my future projects which I have lined up.[8)]