A
Arfa Daily
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Hi all
Friend of mine also in the electronic service business just called me to
tell of a conversation he had in the pub last night with one of his friends.
Turns out this guy is a washing machine service engineer with his own
business of many years. He told my friend that from a business point of
view, he is delighted with lead-free solder, because in the last year or so
it has boosted his profits significantly. This is because of the number of
bad joints that he now sees on items such as solenoids. He is firmly
convinced that the lead-free solder, being a harder material that doesn't
stick well in the first place to items with a large thermal inertia, cannot
take the vibration that a washing machine subjects it to. This seems
altogether reasonable to me.
Just this morning, I have repaired a NAD CD player that would play for
anything between 5 and 45 minutes, before randomly failing. No amount of
physical provocation would bring on the fault, nor correct it when it
occured. It would need to be left off for about a half hour before it would
play again. Just for sport, I tried a laser, but of course, that wasn't it.
I then took the board out, and went over it with a headband magnifier. I
then found two perfect cracked-right-round joints on a connector. The joints
had that traditional lead-free straight-sided volcano like shape. Once these
had been attended to, and the original laser put back in, everything was
fine.
Is it just me, or does anyone else have concerns for the wider implications
of this nonsense technology that has replaced a mature and reliable
technology in the dubious name of that new great ( and some would say false
.... ) god, "Green" ? If washing machines can vibrate these joints into
submission, I sincerely hope that the exemptions that the avionics and
automotive electronics industries currently enjoy, never get rescinded ...
Arfa
Friend of mine also in the electronic service business just called me to
tell of a conversation he had in the pub last night with one of his friends.
Turns out this guy is a washing machine service engineer with his own
business of many years. He told my friend that from a business point of
view, he is delighted with lead-free solder, because in the last year or so
it has boosted his profits significantly. This is because of the number of
bad joints that he now sees on items such as solenoids. He is firmly
convinced that the lead-free solder, being a harder material that doesn't
stick well in the first place to items with a large thermal inertia, cannot
take the vibration that a washing machine subjects it to. This seems
altogether reasonable to me.
Just this morning, I have repaired a NAD CD player that would play for
anything between 5 and 45 minutes, before randomly failing. No amount of
physical provocation would bring on the fault, nor correct it when it
occured. It would need to be left off for about a half hour before it would
play again. Just for sport, I tried a laser, but of course, that wasn't it.
I then took the board out, and went over it with a headband magnifier. I
then found two perfect cracked-right-round joints on a connector. The joints
had that traditional lead-free straight-sided volcano like shape. Once these
had been attended to, and the original laser put back in, everything was
fine.
Is it just me, or does anyone else have concerns for the wider implications
of this nonsense technology that has replaced a mature and reliable
technology in the dubious name of that new great ( and some would say false
.... ) god, "Green" ? If washing machines can vibrate these joints into
submission, I sincerely hope that the exemptions that the avionics and
automotive electronics industries currently enjoy, never get rescinded ...
Arfa