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tech.com Production
Why Pay Twice? Getting the Most from Solder by Recycling
Dan Feinberg, Vice President, P. Kay Metal, Inc. I
FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, THIS IS MUCH BIGGER THAN IT LOOKS.
f you are part of an EMS company that uses wave soldering, you have al- ready realized that only a small amount of the solder you purchase goes into your assembled device. The vast majority of the solder you purchase
becomes solder dross. Most likely you sell it back to either your solder suppli- er or to a recycler for a fraction of its value. They then recycle it and sell it back to you at full price. Recyclers love dross, they make a small fortune on it and pay you a pit-
tance. Solder dross has been a problem for the electronic assembly industry since wave soldering overtook manual placement and hand soldering decades ago. Dross is a costly byproduct of molten solder, oxygen and turbulence. Once solder is converted into dross it becomes hazardous waste, with an emphasis on waste. Years ago, when the cost of solder was under $2.50 per pound, send- ing out 70 to 80 percent of your solder as dross to a recycler and getting a frac- tion of it back was not a big deal. With all metal prices much higher now and with the advent of expensive lead-free solder, the more dross you sell cheap- ly, the more your costs rise.
Dross Reduction Processes There have been a number of dross reduction processes available for
quite some time. They include oxygen barriers, such as powders and oils, and also expensive nitrogen. Some of these are partially useful for a short period of time, but they only modestly reduce the amount of dross. There are even mechanical devices used to squeeze some good metal from the hot dross. These devices do not convert dross back into useable metal, they try to separate good metal from it, and as a result, their effi- ciency is low. The metal that is recov- ered is of low quality and the process is not really effective. In addition, the ma- chines are usually not reliable in the long term, and the dross powder that they produce is not useable even though it contains a lot of useable metal. What has been needed is a process that virtu- ally eliminates dross by simply breaking
Solder dross has been a
problem for the electronic assembly industry since wave soldering overtook manual placement and soldering decades ago.
the organometallic bond between oxygen and the metal, releasing the O2 and leaving the original metal in its original alloy and ready for use. The Molten Solder Surfactant (MS2) from P. Kay Metal does precisely that.
Molten Solder Surfactant For the last few years it has been possible for any company that gener-
It’s just one small connection. Often smaller than a millimeter wide. But done right, it can save you millions. At Alpha, we place even the smallest electronic assembly challenge in a bigger light. As part of an assembly process that turns particles of material
into products and innovations that
change the world. So when we think of that one connection and how to do it better, we think of where it fits into your business. Because while it may be hard to see, your future success is connected there too.
AlphaAssembly.com
ates dross to reclaim it themselves and retain up to 90 percent of its value. The technology that makes this possible is an easy-to-use product called MS2®. This material is a multi-nationally patented, nontoxic chemical process that allows a company that uses wave soldering to reduce their bar solder pur- chases by up to 85 percent. Instead of giving that valuable dross to a recycler for a tiny portion of its value, you can add that significant reduction in solder purchases to your bottom line and improve your competitive position. Selling your dross means that you have to repurchase new solder at full
cost. MS2 allows any assembly facility, no matter how small or how large, to easily recycle the dross back into pure solder bars that can then be placed back into their wave solder machine, just as you would with new solder bars. Most of the company’s customers report typical reduction in solder purchases of 60 to 80 percent. For the larger EMS companies, this translates into hun- dreds of thousands of US dollar savings per year, even after the purchase of the MS2. In 2015, users of MS2 in North America, China and Europe reclaimed
over 2,150,000lbs of dross with the MS2 process at an estimated 90 percent ef- ficiency. This means that these users reclaimed 1,935,000lbs of useable, pure solder from that dross. This is solder that was not repurchased. Even after subtracting the cost of the MS2, which is only a small part of the cost, the total net savings for manufacturers using MS2 last year, through reduction in sol- der purchases, is almost $35 million dollars.
Using MS2 MS2 can be used in a number of ways, but the simplest way is by plac-
ing the dross into a spare solder pot, heating it and mixing in MS2. It is that simple. For those that would like to acquire a complete system, the P. Kay DOFFS solder pot, complete with heater, solder bar mold and stirring unit is available in different sizes, depending on production volume. A semi-automat-
ic system for high-volume production, AKILA, is available as well. Contact: P. Kay, Metal, Inc., 2448 E. 25 St., Los Angeles, CA 90058
% 800-757-6533 or 323-585-5058 Web:
www.pkaymetal.com r See at NEPCON China, WKK Booth 1F40
See at SMT Hybrid Packaging, Booth 7-109
May, 2016
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