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HASL Fiducial Disposal

#20874

HASL Fiducial Disposal | 25 July, 2002

In the case where fiducials with a HASL finish are removed from a panel in the depanelizing process, what do most people do for disposing of the rails? Since the HASL finish has lead in it, is it generally required that they be disposed of like printed circuit boards, or is the amount of lead below some minimum level below which you don't need to worry about it? My company is in state of Washington if that helps.

Our policy has been to physically remove the solder from the fiducal prior to disposing of the balance of the rail. However, this is expensive and I'd like to make an arguement for abandoning the process.

Thanks!

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#20881

HASL Fiducial Disposal | 25 July, 2002

How do you �physically remove the solder from the fiducal prior to disposing of the balance of the rail�?

We don�t HASL our fiducals. Easier to see with vid head.

If you need to HASL your fiducals, consider: * Disposing of the rails with your scrap boards. * Cutting the fiducals from the rails with your pizza cutter and then disposing of them as a hazardous material.

How does this fit into your EPA Lead TRI Reporting sceme?

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CAL

#20892

HASL Fiducial Disposal | 26 July, 2002

Is it possible to Design out the fiducial and use the local fiducials on the panelized boards?

Cal

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#20939

HASL Fiducial Disposal | 29 July, 2002

We're a contract manufacturer, so we are at the mercy of our customers sometimes. We strongly encourage fiducials on the board instead of the rails, but sometimes the customer doesn't want to spend the time or money to do it.

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#20941

HASL Fiducial Disposal | 29 July, 2002

We remove the fiducials by pushing sideways on them with a hot soldering iron. The copper pad separates from the FR4. We collect them and dispose of them.

We have thought of disposing of the rail material with the boards, but our recycler doesn't want them and disposing of them as hazardous waste is relatively expensive because of the volume of material.

I'm not in charge of disposing of the lead, so I'm not sure how it fits into the TRI reporting.

I'm unclear how to avoid putting a HASL finish on the fiducials if the rest of the panel has a HASL finish.

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#20951

HASL Fiducial Disposal | 29 July, 2002

Your board fabricator can tell you how they want you to specify boards that do not have solder on the fiducals on the rails. They probably do not need some BIG stinking drawing change, but can operate from a letter. [And even if you run the change past your customer, they probably will not care, since it doesn't affect their end-product.]

[Very smart approach to removing the fiducials. From what you said in your original post, I pictured you removing the solder from the fiducals.]

Thinking about the removing the fiducals idea further [say if you couldn't figure-out a way to have your fasbricator stop putting HASL on the fiducals] is there someone [like a sheltered workshop] that could remove the fiducals less expensively than you can remove them?

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#20987

HASL Fiducial Disposal | 31 July, 2002

Dave, I'm assuming your unsoldered fids are exposed copper. Do you have any issues with machine vision due to the various color changes the copper goes through as it oxidies?

Larry

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#21000

HASL Fiducial Disposal | 31 July, 2002

No, but then again we do not stock boards longer than 6 months

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