Amsterdam Conference on Lead-free Electronics- A Euro Winner!

European delegates from the electronics industry gathered in Amsterdam at the end of June for the second jointly sponsored IPC/Soldertec Lead-Free Electronics Conference "Towards implementation of the RoHS Directive". The two day conference program at the Amsterdam RAI International Exhibition and Congress Centre was preceded by a day of technical workshops presented by Dr.Ron Lasky of the Indium Corporation, Bob Willis of EPS, Dr. Bill Plumbridge of the Open University and  Soldertec Global Lead-free Award winner, Dr.Ning-Cheng Lee.

The event was attended by over 180 delegates, mostly Europeans but also with visitors from as far afield as the US and Asia, including a group of twelve attendees from China PR. The program began with Steven Andrews, Dept of Trade and Industry, UK, who gave an update on the RoHS and EU member state implementation. The conference offered over 40 speakers which included Hu Zhixin speaking on the situation and development of lead-free solders in China, Adolf Mikula from Vienna University discussing the Cost 531 European Action on lead-free soldering program, and Dr.Jeremy Pearce from Soldertec Global discussing the ELFNET project.

The programme had a strong technical content and papers were of a very high quality. Internationals speakers, pre-eminent in their fields, shared their lead-free knowledge and experience and answered questions at the end of each session.  One of the main topics of discussion was component compatibility. The issues raised included labelling, lead finishes, MSLs, high temperature compatibility, and obsolescence.

"The electronic assemblers believe they can control the higher temperatures required for lead-free processes and they have PCB suppliers who can offer a lead-free finish. Their perceived problems are coming from the component suppliers," commented Tom Perrett, Marketing Manager at Soldertec Global. "The link between assembler and vendors of PCBs and consumables is often closer than that between assembler and component manufacturer and they feel that their questions are not being heard. There is little time left between now and July 2006, but for the component manufacturers that can bridge this gap there will be big rewards."

Copies of the proceedings, all 40+ speakers including Denis Barbini of Vitronics Soltec,  Paul Evers of Philips, and Karin Schottenloher of Siemens VDO Automotive, are available on CD-rom for just £125 by emailing: info@lead-free.org