At 01:11 PM 4/28/2004 +0100, you wrote:
> >That won't effect us Americans. Its a European Union deal.
>
>If you believe this, then you playing Ostrich, with your head in the sand.
>
>The reality for Americans is that many components will be produced using
>lead free tinning on the component leads, and lead bearing solders do not
>solder well to these. Unless America implodes inwards, and stops sourcing
>components from Asia and elsewhere, then it will have an almighty affect on
>you right when it is most inconvenient.
>
>It might be a European Union deal, but it has already affected many
>component suppliers in Asia.

It just affected one of my California customers. The Japanese relay I'd spec'd
for his project was just discontinued in favor of a new environmentally
friendly
model. The replacement is not available in the required temperature range,
so all the design, PCB etc. has to change (we're using a different model from
the same company that is not nearly as good in some ways).

We're talking about a part available through Digikey and Mouser- in fact
Digikey automatically e-mailed me that the part was now discontinued since I'd
ordered it in the past from them.

Only one of the below links is to a company with a European head office:

http://www.national.com/packaging/leadfree/
Note: "JEDEC moisture sensitivity level classification will most likely
be downgraded by as many as two levels" (side effect from higher temps)

http://www.renesas.com/avs/resource/japan/eng/pdf/others/rej01k0001_leadfree.pdf
http://www.fairchildsemi.com/products/lead_free/strategy.html
http://www.onsemi.com/site/pdf/pbfree_strategy.pdf
http://www.st.com/stonline/products/families/memories/eeprom/e3pres1.pdf
http://www.micron.com/about/environment/pbfree.html
http://www.semicon.panasonic.co.jp/lead-free/e-index.html
http://www.microchip.com/1010/tsupport/faq/leadfree/

This is a global thing, and suppliers who drag their feet will be left
out of markets.

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

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