2005 Articles

EPIC Johnson City has been ready for lead-free work for several months. We lack two things: a clamor from customers for it and complete availability of lead-free components – 99% doesn’t cut it. By and large, our customers are still in the thinking-about-it stage; one that really wants lead-free has a design for which we have not been able to come up with all the lead-free components (yet). As you pointed out (Caveat Lector, April 2005, circuitsassembly.com/cms/content/view/1295/), in less than 15 months it hits the fan. A lot of OEMs think lead-free is an off-the-shelf option from their current EMS. I’m not in purchasing and don’t know what components cannot be found, but I have not been able to find lead-free through-hole connectors for some optimization tests I would like to pursue.

George Carroll

EPIC Technologies LLC

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