Sorry this is such a long thread but I would like as much input as possible to everything I ramble on about... :)
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We are now seeing more and more RoHS parts showing up in our SMT inventory and a question has been popping up more and more....
"Can you safely use RoHS parts in a fully leaded production line?"
We use a highly active water-wash flux in our reflow process which sees a maximum reflow temperature of 215C +/- 5C. (we wash all our boards) One of the engineers I work with was reading the manufacturer's specs on one of the parts which said that you should reflow the part to a maximum peak of 260C. He now thinks we should simply crank up our oven to 260C and be done with it. I know this can't be done as it affects just about ever aspect of the proccess. (boards, flux, parts, etc) Then, yesterday, our purchasing manager came to me and said that a couple of our suppliers have been getting complaints from other customers. They say that they are having problems soldering with leaded solder to RoHS parts. My only thought on this is maybe the majority of companies still using leaded solder are using no-clean paste which wouldn't solder as well to begin with?
What I'd really like is confimation, via IPC standard, formal test results or SOMETHING that shows that it is indeed possible, agreeing with every lead-free conference I've been to over the years.... it's perfectly OK to use lead-free components in a leaded proccess.
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