Desperately Seeking Solder

Hi, you don't mention how much or what wire diameter you need, nor which part of the world you are residing in. For our standard production we use 0.7mm 60% Sn 40% Pb rosin core flux wire(still the leaded type)found very easily in South Africa. Its used on very fine high density surface mount components with minimal residue. Might be what you are after. Manufactured by Techmet (www.techmet.co.za). If interested I can roll up a sample amount and post it over, however no guarentees that it will arrive as it is considered a hazadous material.

Hope this helps

I don't claim any particular genius but I saw this coming years ago and "stocked up". No, you can't have any. God save us from do-gooders.

@madness: I just might take you up on that sample offer at some point -- Thanks!

"God save us from do-gooders."

And God save us from the slothful who decide their mind based upon whatever the government-media feeds them.

I truly appreciate all of the input here, folks...

Moving forward, I think that I'd like to start building a thread which effectively lists top-flight product for those of us who are being chafed by the latest "green" regs and the ensuing market confusion.

So, in the interest of beginning with a good foundation, here are some electronic-use flux standards which I dug up that may be of value (as you can see, I've had a small piece of good fortune since the OP).

From J-STD-004:

Fluxes shall be characterized according to one of the following three types:

L = Low or no flux/flux residue activity

M = Moderate flux/flux residue activity

H = High flux/flux residue activity

Flux shall conform to flux activity levels L0 and L1 of flux materials rosin (RO), resin (RE), or organic (OR).

Organic flux activity level L1 shall not be used for no-clean soldering.

Further digging revealed a couple of gold nuggets regarding Halides in flux:

"Halide-free fluxes are available, but there is a significant misunderstanding surrounding them. First, halide-free fluxes may not be more reliable than halide-bearing fluxes. A halide-free activator is not as effective at oxide removal. Therefore, to obtain good wetting with halide-free fluxes, more total activator is needed (no halides, but chemically aggressive). Any activators, halide or halide-free, have the potential to produce corrosion if not processed properly. The more activator present in the flux, the greater the risk. Since halide-free fluxes typically have more activator, the reliability risk is greater."

"The second important point regards measuring the halides in fluxes. The standard test methods currently in use, titration and ion chromatography, are effective at detecting only ionic, not covalently bonded, halides. Therefore, the statement, "halide-free by titration" simply means that there are no ionic halides. If you encounter this claim, remember, the flux might contain a high quantity of covalently bonded halides."

Now, based upon this generally lucid, helpful data, I was able to Google forth through the jungle in search of a suitable flux/designator; and found a couple more potential candidates for the mix

ALPHA seems to have a lineup which could fit the bill, right off the shelf. Skimming this info sheet, it looks like the "Telecore" Sn62Pb36Ag2B product could be considered a near drop-in replacement for my trusty old Multicore recipe of years past (sans the legendary 5-core construction ).

Warton Metals' "Future" Sn62 might be a good choice as well; but they don't seem to be as forthcoming about their J-STD-004 flux designation.

And, again, there is this offering from Interflux; which looks to be well-qualified fluxwise.

Finally, madness mentioned Techmet in his post; although I was unable to access the site via their homepage today (?)

So, does anyone have experiences with these players/products which they'd like to share?

Any other "pet recommendations" (alloys, fluxes) for folks to consider?

Thanks again for the input!

P.S. -- Here's another link which may be of general interest within this topic:

Pushback

Ciao!