Company introduces lead-free electronics

Endress+Hauser has removed lead from all electronic components — primarily printed circuit board manufacturing — in its ongoing products portfolio, voluntarily complying with a recent European directive aimed at protecting human health from the effects of lead. 

The company has now reduced its future lead consumption to only a few kilograms per year — achieving a saving of 1.5 tonnes per year.

The Endress+Hauser project team built on over a decade of experience with lead-free alloys, which it first developed for the Liquiphant level limit switch back in the 1990s.

Working with the Technical University of Munich and the Swiss system makers Kirsten Soldering AG, the team developed an alternative silver solder, soldering paste and soldering unit. Preventing ‘whiskers’ — fine, needle-shaped crystals that can cause short-circuits — proved a challenge, but the biggest problem was the need for higher soldering temperatures. Since temperatures that are too high will damage the component, the temperature window for the soldering process is extremely narrow.

The conversion to lead-free engineering across the range has been highly complex, requiring the adaptation of a host of manufacturing processes, tools, machines, components, supply chain factors, logistics and IT processes.

The new technology has been introduced step by step across the portfolio, with two million lead-free components having already been manufactured. The very few exceptions are being phased out, and all new products are developed in accordance with the EU guidelines.