Cobar "Going Green" to Prevent Lead-Free Mix-ups
Breda, Holland -- One of the biggest issues facing electronics manufacturers transitioning to lead-free soldering is the threat of cross-contamination, i.e., lead-bearing materials become mixed up with new lead-free solders. Even small amounts of lead contamination can cause tremendous problems and result in high remediation costs as well as process down-time if they become accidentally combined with lead-free soldering products.
Cobar BV, a leading supplier of solder pastes and fluxes worldwide, has instituted a simple, recognizable color coding standard for all of its solder paste products to distinguish lead-bearing from lead-free. Effective immediately, all outgoing lead-free solder pastes will be packaged in green-colored containers such as cartridges and jars, while lead-bearing pastes will continue to ship in white containers. There is no difference in the quality of the packaging material, only the color is changed.
In making the announcement, Eli Westerlaken, President, said "Since everyone knows that all solder pastes look very much alike, we want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to prevent cross-contamination during lead-free changeover. Delivery of lead-free paste in green packaging and lead-bearing paste in white will make it easy for the customer to recognize the product and prevent mistakes."
Cobar is a leading global supplier of solder pastes, fluxes, and other electronics soldering materials for electronics assembly. Cobar BV, founded in 1983 in Holland, is the technological center and headquarters of the Cobar Group, a multi-million dollar corporation with operations and distributors in all major areas of the world. Cobar BV has been certified to ISO/TS 16949:2002; the company was accredited to ISO 9001 in 1994 and to ISO 14001 in 1997, and is also accredited to NATO's AQAP-110. Contact the company at Aluminiumstraat 2, 4823 AL Breda, Holland, or PO Box 3251, 4800 DG Breda, Holland, Tel +31 (0)76 544 5566. Cobar Solder Products is the U.S. subsidiary of the Cobar Group, located at 53 Wentworth Avenue, Londonderry, New Hampshire 03053 USA, Tel. (603) 432-7500, Fax (603) 432-7519. For more information, visit www.cobar.com.
