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There are all kinds of parameters/variables for solder. Diameter, core material and core diameter, types of metals, ratio of different metals, etc etc. Can we give examples of, for instance, a good leadfree solder for small hobbyist/repair electronics work, a good solder for small copper pipes, etc.? And explain why each aspect is best for that application. - Omegatron 16:33, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)
http://www.efdsolder.com/PDF/EFD_-_Alloy_%2B_Flux_Selection_Guide.pdf
As a veteran electronics engineer, I think the disadvantages of lead-free solder should be exposed, despite the headlong rush to get lead out of electrical and electronic products. IBM researchers futzed around with lead free solders in the 1960s, and after wasting several years, gave up.
The simple fact is, most electrical and electronic parts are designed to work best with eutectic solder, i.e., the ones with the lowest melting temperature. The epoxies used to encapsulate integrated circuits already soften dangerously at the temperatures needed for reflow soldering of Sn60/Pb40 solder, and the higher temperatures and longer dwell times required for lead-free solders can damage them and cause premature failure. The platings used on component leads are optimised for eutectic solder. It is not enough to just switch solder formulas. The entire industry gets turned on its head in the effort. With higher processing cost and lower reliability, the end users bear the cost. Lower reliability means products will fail earlier, greatly contributing to the waste stream going into landfills.
Policies such as RoHS only be implemented because politicians are ignorant of science and technology. I take consolation in the hope that some of those politicians will meet their maker due to a critical component failure in the car or airplane in which they are riding.
-- Quicksilver 01:29, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I would like to add another potential concern with lead-free solder when used with electronic components. Over time where pure tin exists, the tin can actually grow or form small spurs often called "tin whiskers". These tin whiskers can cause short circuits or cause other problems in electronics equipment. The cause of the growth of the whiskers is not fully understood, but adding lead to the tin seems to help reduce or eliminate the growth. Many electronic components that are meant for use with lead-free solder are plated with pure tin in the factory (instead of tin/lead solder). This means that over time, they may produce whiskers that could cause failures of the electronics equipment. Many good articles are available for further research on the web. NASA has done a lot of reseach on the topic.
C. D. Brown
Both the solder article and the comments talk about Sn60/Pb40 as the stndard electronics solder. My experience has been that Sn63/Pb37 is preferable, because it has a lower melting point. We cleaned all the 60/40 out of my shop quite some time ago. Now we are working to develop a lead free shop.
-Allison Sibert, Engineering Assistant, High Energy Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana, sibert@uiuc.edu
With an electrical engineering degree and much experience with hobby electronics, lead-free solder is not the standard, considering it is highly more expensive (almost 5 times as much as lead solder) and most companies prefer to use lead solder. It's very unfair to make lead-free solder sound like an equivalent to lead solder, when in reality the two are far apart 71.75.99.237 (talk) 01:31, 6 April 2011 (UTC)
Lead-free solder has a higher [[Young's modulus]] than lead-based solder, making it more brittle when [[Deformation (engineering)|deformed]]. When the [[Printed circuit board|PCB]] on which the [[electronic component]]s are mounted is subject to bending stress due to warping, the solder joint deteriorates and [[fractures]] can appear. This effect is called '''solder cracking'''.<ref name="pessim">http://product.tdk.com/en/techjournal/archives/vol05_mlcc/contents06.html</ref> Another fault is Kirkendall voids which are microscopic cavities in solder. When two different types of metal that are in contact are heated, dispersion occurs (see also [[Kirkendall effect]]). Repeated thermal cycling cause the formation of voids which tends to cause solder cracks. Lead-free solder can cause short life cycles of products, as well as [[planned obsolescence]].<ref name="pessim" /> WayBackMachine showed me this page as a dead web page:
I'm gonna move it into the first paragraph area. If that's not acceptable, move it back. Or something. --CCFreak2K 01:21, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
Done. The sentence doesn't look quite right grammatically though, so someone else should check it. --CCFreak2K 01:24, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
the etymology is from pretty 'old' words; so, Im interested, when was soldering invented? --83.131.148.234 22:06, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
Does anyone have any information to add about "silver soldering"? What makes it different? Is it purely the make-up of the solder being used or is the equipment/process itself fundamentally different?
R
It contains silver (Ag) instead of lead (Pb). If you look under "Lead-free solder" you'll see several different alloys containing silver. 205.154.230.3 00:42, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
I honestly think that "silver solder" or "silver soldering" is of significant importance as to warrant a section unto itself. In support of this statement I point out that hardware store attendance, jewelers, industrial and home hobbyists are all familiar with the term "silver solder". My concern is that this article has adopted (perhaps too enthusiastically) the subject matter and vocabulary of metallurgists. Whereas I personally suspect that that is not the primary subject matter of which the average Wikipedia user is seeking. Perhaps thought should be given to splitting this article into, say, two separate articals. One delving into "the chemistry of soldiering", and the other addressing "Soldering - the craft". - Stan — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.110.208.51 (talk) 16:22, 30 November 2013 (UTC)
Does anybody know how they measure the tin content in solder? Or anything about cone cutters? Rfwoolf 18:27, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Does anybody know of a way to remove the lead from the circuit board besides using a soldering iron?
Short answer: No. Longer answer: You would need to rework every solder joint on the PCB with a solder-sucker or solder-wick, replacing each joint with a leadfree solder. In the real world, it'd be cheaper, faster & easier to throw out the device & replace it with a new one that complied with RoHS standards. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.175.202.173 (talk) 05:52, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
"A solder is a fusible metal alloy"? Surely a Fusible alloy is one with a melting point below the usual boiling point of water? Contrariwise, any alloy will fuse, i.e. melt, at some temperature. P.M.Lawrence.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.166.63.4 (talk) 08:55, 6 July 2007
this article does not discuss about health hazard of soldering ... as a electronic hobbyist i do a lot of soldering ... and I'm worried about the fumes is it lead that I'm inhaling or simply the flux ?
66.130.178.129 03:26, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
Why the heck is it pronounced 'sodder'? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.21.221 (talk) 20:37, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
The intro paragraph says that lead free solder is more common. My experience, at least in Australia, is that lead free solder is very hard to find. I work at an electronics repair workshop and we refuse to use lead free solder and I believe most other workshops do as well. Hobby stores here do not stock lead-free solder. Only a small percentage of new appliances I see contain lead-free solder and it's a pain in the ass to work with. --Spuzzdawg (talk) 03:49, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
The last paragraph in the Lead Solder section states:
Solder is made up of tin (30%) and lead (70%). It can bond metals together as it has a fairly low melting point of 183 Degrees Celcius.
Which contradicts the preceding text, and seems rather simplistic while adding nothing useful. The melting point is not the reason it can bond metals together, but that seems to be what this text claims - ice has a low melting point, but I would not use it to join metals! . Also the phrase "fairly low" is both subjective and unnecessary - the melting point is what it is, and requires no judgement as to whether it is low or high, other than perhaps that it is lower than the materials being joined. Also that is not the accepted English spelling of Celsius.
Assuming the preceding text is accurate (and therefore this is not), should it not simply deleted? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.189.28.130 (talk) 10:01, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
Under Solder#Flux_core_solder appeared the wording
That's almost certainly misleading bcz it suggests, perhaps implies, that the tube (that implies hollow) is formed and then filled, which is unlikely in light of the issue of inducing even hot flux to fill a narrow interior.
I'm no expert, but i'm pretty sure most long cylindrical products, hollow or solid, (e.g. pipes, tubes, fiber-optic-cable strands, wires, and mono-filament fishing line) are made by stretching (probably "drawing" thru multiple dies that progressively decrease the diameter) material ("blanks"?) of much higher diameter. In this case, the roughly millimeter-diameter flux-core solder is almost certainly manufactured by first producing a large diameter two-material intermediate, and i am replacing with the less ambiguous description:
As with the Cheez-Its, i'm not sure how they get all that flux inside, even assuming i'm right about drawing down the diameter. But at least some flux-core solders are soft enuf that the drawing might fuse the solder-to-solder interface left when solder already drawn thru a rectangular die is either folded lengthwise, or spiral-wrapped, around a chilled cylinder of flux; if that is feasible, it would presumably explain the Ersin 5-core solder as the result of another stage of drawing that could fuse 5 strands of single-core solder into a single strand with 5 cores. I suppose much of this depends on the ratio of the changes of ductility and tensile strength as temperature increases, since the harder you squeeze it against the die to shape and fuse, the harder you have to pull it to get it thru the die. Sure be a good thing if someone who knows what they're talking about weighed in!
--Jerzy•t 05:51, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
Quoting the current text under heading Flux-core solder; "rosin flux used in electronics, where the corrosiveness of acid flux and vapours released when solder is heated would risk damaging delicate circuitry."
Surely the danger is also to people exposed to fumes when hand soldering, or 'reworking' joints after wave/ reflow soldering. For which reason fume extractors/ fans with filters are/ should always be used. Perhaps a section on safety for both Solder and Soldering articles??
I come from an extensive background of through hole, high reliability, hand soldering, before SMD and reflow soldering was common. The Solder/Soldering articles seem to be written by younger technical types with a natural bias towards the newer soldering technologies. As noted above re fumes. I will put my 2 cents worth in to balance it a little. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 07:10, 25 October 2009 (UTC)
In my materials science class we studied phase diagrams of various alloys, including tin/lead. On the phase diagram for sn/pb it shows the eutectic point at 61.9% tin. Why then, is eutectic solder 63/37 and not 62/38? 173.14.231.57 (talk) 17:10, 2 July 2010 (UTC)
I found the answer. From DKLMetals (http://www.dklmetals.co.uk/PDF%20Files/Factorfiction.pdf): "Purists will point out that the true tin-lead eutectic is actually at 61.9% tin but given the tendency to lose tin by oxidation and reaction with substrates a little more quickly than lead it was found worthwhile erring a little on the high tin side."
The page says that 62/38 is near eutectic and that 63/37 is eutectic. 62% SN is actually closer to the true eutectic point. I'd say we should put that in the page. 173.14.231.57 (talk) 17:29, 2 July 2010 (UTC)
Seeing how the hard solder section is about filler metals used for brazing shouldn't this be moved to the brazing article? As the brazing article, subsection "silver brazing", points out "silver solder"/"silver soldering" is a misnomer, because it's actually a brazing process. Wizard191 (talk) 15:20, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
I've edited out some unusual claims about this.
> In electronics, the traditional use of solder was to fortify > mechanically made electrical contacts, e.g. two solid copper > wires twisted together.
Simply not true
> This was in part due to the higher electrical resistance of
> solder versus copper.
The resistance of solder in soldered twisted wire joints is a complete non issue in all but a tiny niche of applications. The reference given for this is an entire book, which as a reference is not much use. If the provider of this ref would ilke to give a specific place in the book we could discuss it meaningfully. 82.31.207.100 (talk) 20:23, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
I made a table before I saw that there allready was one here; however solders in this table are not specific for use in electronics, and also include hard solders
Soldering method[1] | Type of solder | Melting temperature |
---|---|---|
Soft soldering | 50% tin-30% lead-cadmium | 145°C |
Soft soldering | 70% tin-cadmium-zinc | 160°C |
Soft soldering | 3,5% gold-60% tin-lead | 170°C-180°C |
Soft soldering | Silver-tin (4% gold) | 221°C |
Soft soldering | Tin-antimony (95% tin) | 223°C-240°C |
Soft soldering | Cadmium-zinc (82,5% cadmium) | 266°C |
Soft soldering | Silver-cadmium-zinc (2% gold) | 280°C-370°C |
Soft soldering | Silver-cadmium-zinc (10% gold) | 280°C-375°C |
Soft soldering | Silver-lead (3% gold) | 305°C |
Soft soldering | Silver-cadmium (5% gold) | 340°C-395°C |
Hard soldering | Aluminium-13% silicium | 577°C |
Hard soldering | Aluminium-5% silicium | 577°C-620°C |
Hard soldering | Silver-cupper-zinc-tin-nickel | 630°C-680°C |
Hard soldering | Silver-cupper-zinc-cadmium-nickel | 630°C-680°C |
Hard soldering | Silver-cupper-zinc-tin | 610°C-720°C |
Hard soldering | Silver-cupper-zinc-cadmium | 600°C-720°C |
Hard soldering | Silver-cupper-phosphorus | 625°C-780°C |
Hard soldering | Silver-cupper-zinc | 680°C-850°C |
Hard soldering | Silver-cupper | 780°C |
Hard soldering | Cupper-phosphorus | 714°C - 900°C |
Hard soldering | Cupper-zinc-silicon-nickel | 865°C - 950°C |
Hard soldering | Cupper-zinc-silicon | 865°C - 900°C |
Hard soldering | Cupper-zinc | 865°C - 900°C |
Hard soldering | Silver | 961°C |
Hard soldering | Gold | 1060°C |
Hard soldering | Cupper | 1080°C |
Perhaps a additional column would be "Flux" 91.182.242.10 (talk) 09:21, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
Here's a good list with applications: http://www.bhavanimetals.com/Solder_Wire_Rosin_Core_Solder.htm I didn't see any Bi18 combinations, but those also exist. Sn50Pb32Bi18 is one. Sadly, I can't find too many references to it so it must be rarely used. We really need the more common types listed anyways to start the table, which we already have. The problem is trying to find more kinds of bismuth solders which we have a very limited list of. They're very useful for low-temperature work so someone will want to see them! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.196.246.113 (talk) 16:42, 8 October 2011 (UTC)
References
Would it be realistic in wiki-editing terms, to put comments under each solder, rather than far off to the side? I literally had no idea why the spacing was so large, the comments go right off the browser page size. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.242.89.38 (talk) 11:51, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
Needs a ref.
1. Reflow is not a method developed for Lead-free solder. It was used to change the patchwork of Lead and Tin crystals that was generated by Tin-Lead plating of circuit boards into a uniform surface to place components on. "Wave soldering" was literally a wave of liquid solder projected above the surface of the remaining solder that touched the bottom of the circuit board as in went by on a conveyor. Occasionally Peanut Oil (@ 450 F) was used. This has made way to use of InfraRed as a means to fuse the solder paste on these boards. And generally double-sided (components to be soldered place on both top and bottom of board) are fused from only one side (although the board may be preheated on both sides.) 2. Re using solder to electrically connect electrical components. Copper wire is no longer used to make printed circuit boards. Some companies, e.g. Hitachi, use full build electroless Copper deposition to create conductive paths on their circuit boards. The higher resistance Oxygen containing Copper is excused by the very low currents used by today's microelectronics. I'd note that uneven heating during the component soldering would result in "tombstoning" where chips, e.g. rectangular surface mount chip capacitors, would have the surface tension of the first melting side detach them from the other terminal and look like a tombstone in a graveyard. 3. Solder plating as etch resist and to protect surface from oxidation. An important purpose of solder in printed circuit board usage is ignored in this article. After the Copper metal has been plated into the vias (holes, connecting to layers within multilayer boards), a layer of solder is plated over the circuit paths. Tin alloys (and Lead) are resistant to oxidation by typical etchants (Ammoniacal Copper Chloride or Ammonium Persulfate used industrially) used to remove excess Copper. Other etch resist plating can be by Gold or Palladium. Occasionally the etch resist metal is stripped and the bare copper protected by treatments such as 2-Thiobenzimidazole. 4. The legendary Tin Whisker problem. First Lead does not exist in a solid solution in Tin. Solid solder exists as myriads of individual Tin and Lead Crystals. The as plated solder (grey matte appearance) consists of large individual Tin and Lead crystals. There are large stresses in the as-plated Tin crystals, but the reduction in Tin whiskers is exactly related to the surface area reduction by the Lead crystals. Due to the higher melting point etc the solder plating is melted or "Reflowed" to give it a shiny uniform surface for parts mounting and also relieved the stresses in the aforementioned Tin crystals. "Bright Tin" plating is not reflowed. Note other electronics metals are known for whisker formation Silver, Aluminum, Zinc to name a few. Tin is less affected by potential induced whisker growth than other metals (potentials in microcircuits can be many KV/cm). 5. In making Chemistry glassware, we used Potassium HexachloroPlatinate to create a metallic (Platinum) coating on glassware to solder it to other glassware or to metal parts (e.g. metal bellows). It was a common procedure for us; it was mentioned in the 1939 edition of Chemical Rubber Handbook. 6. Tin Cry is a soldering issue? Really? 2001:4898:80E8:5:0:0:0:4FA (talk) 16:02, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
The first column of the table is written in the form of a chemical compound. I suppose that isn't so bad even though they aren't compounds, but chemistry tradition is that compounds are written in terms of atoms or moles, and not weight. It seems that solder ratios are weight ratios. Would it be possible to write the first column differently so it doesn't look like a compound, or molar ratio? Gah4 (talk) 00:54, 28 June 2016 (UTC)
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A recent edit removed a link to Sherlock as advertising. I probably agree, but then isn't the linked-to page also advertising? It seems to me, though, that if one company is pretty much the standard, they probably should have a page. Just wondering. Gah4 (talk) 22:04, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
Why is FR-4, a PC board material, in the list of solders? I suppose it is useful, but the table name should change. Gah4 (talk) 08:57, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
It seems that there is question about a table in the article. I wonder if the table should have (be) its own article. Even more, it includes hard solder (for brazing) so should reference from that article. I do agree that the table should be somewhere, we just need to decide where. Gah4 (talk) 04:18, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
I am creating a sauna in a box room that has soldered copper pipes running through it. Obviously, I don't want the solder to melt when the sauna is in use, and have water leaks. Although this article does refer to different alloys, and their melting temperatures, it omits to mention what these different grades are used for, reducing the usability of the article. Can people with appropriate knowledge, please add this omitted information? Thanks. FreeFlow99 (talk) 19:23, 15 July 2021 (UTC)