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The Tin-Whisker Menace

Posted by timothy on from the crisis-of-the-moment dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Fortune has an article about how the recent environmental push to completely eliminate lead from electronic components and wiring may eventually lead to the next Y2K problem of slowly-growing tin whiskers short-circuiting equipment.""

3 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. No by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All other factors aside, the reason that Y2K would have been the problem that some alleged is that all the failures would happen at the same time. If something fails, even something major like a powerplant, it's a problem not a catastrophe. It would only be a catastrophe if lots of tem, or worse yet all of them, failed at the same time.

    So supposing this problem is as stated, it'll just lead to higher failure rates of electronics. That's not a catastrophe, just something we'll have to deal with, either by changing the methods used or simply by increasing the rate at which we replace devices.

  2. Heavy Metal! by Nikkodemus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh man, this song could be sooo big!

    Tin Whiiiiiiiiiskers
    They cancelled IT Class
    Tin Whiiiiiiiiiskers
    They come from Satan's ass..

    Hairs of the Devil, items of no good repute
    If the grow to a certain lenght, the PC's can't compute!

    Tin Whiiiiiiiiiskers

    (guitar solo)

    (reprise)

  3. Let's talk reality here by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The lead in solder accounts for a very, VERY tiny percentage of the lead we use and dispose of. It's a really stupid thing to be targeting since there are much bigger problems. It's like worrying about a basket of dirty laundry when your entire floor is covered in garbage. You aren't fixing a problem worth solving.

    Now these tin whiskers aside, this sucks for people who like ot do electronics work at home. The only solder blends that are easy to work with contain lead. A 63/37 Sn/Pb or 62/36/2 Sn/Pb/Ag blend is what you need for a low melting point and nice, clean, easy application. The non-lead solders are much harder to work with since they need much higher temperatures. Easy to burn out a component if you aren't careful.

    Now compare the amount of lead I use to make an electronic device (like 25-30% of a tube the size of my pinky, that's less than 40% lead and wound such as to use less than 30% of the space in the tube) to a lead-acid car battery, which all cars have and are replaced about once every 5 years.

    The no lead in circuts is a wonderful example of environmentalists going after a non issue and fucking things up for people. Yes, lead is a problem, it can contaminate water tables and lead poisoning is NASTY. However the small amount of lead used on PCBs is NOT the problem, and getting rid of it just creats MORE waste by creating electronics that die faster.