In message . com,
4square writes
I have heard, not seen anything in print yet, that the sale/supply of
lead based solder of any type is to cease within the next few years,
due to EU ruling. Anyone else heard of this, any info. on it?


Yes, its banned (there are some exemptions) from 1 July 2006 under the
RoHS (restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive.
Total ******* nightmare.
Lead free solders require higher process temperatures and much better
process control, and still the joints look crap.
The real problem is contamination by lead. Even a fractional percentage
of lead in the solder completely screws joint reliability. Therefore
before you turn a product / process over to leadfree, you have to 100%
sure ALL your components are leadfree. Some component manufactures have
changed part numbers, some haven't. Everything has to be checked,
inventories and databases updated etc etc. Now if you make loads of a
small range of products, it manageable. We make small volumes of a huge
range of complex products.
Its a complete bureaucratic nonsense that will cripple UK / European
electronics manufacture, and just drive more of it to China.

The real stupid thing is that the WEEE directive (Waste electrical /
electronic equipment) means that in future most electrical stuff will be
separated and recycled anyway, so all this lead was to be taken out of
the landfill route anyway.

RoHS is my favourite anti-euro rant topic at the moment!

Plenty of info here :
http://uk.farnell.com/static/en/rohs/index.html

--
steve