European camera mfgs being hurt by pollution controls

The European ban on lead solder has killed a proposed Hasselblad
camera. Hasselblad said it would raise costs 30% for a re-design.
It's likely more will die and innovation will suffer because of it.
Much as optical glass mfg and certain metal finishing processes died
in the U.S.
So, off goes camera mfg'ing lock stock and barrel to China, which
(thanks to the odious Kyoto agreement) does not HAVE any
pollution controls.
-Rich

Rich wrote:
The European ban on lead solder has killed a proposed Hasselblad
camera. Hasselblad said it would raise costs 30% for a re-design.
It's likely more will die and innovation will suffer because of it.
Much as optical glass mfg and certain metal finishing processes died
in the U.S.
So, off goes camera mfg'ing lock stock and barrel to China, which
(thanks to the odious Kyoto agreement) does not HAVE any
pollution controls.

That's interesting. Please point me to the part of the "odious Kyoto
agreement" which refers to this. I thought the Kyoto Protocol was to
do with the production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
I wasn't aware it had anything to do with any other kinds of
pollution.

Andrew.

On Mon, 08 May 2006 11:40:15 -0700, Andrew Haley
wrote:

Rich wrote:
The European ban on lead solder has killed a proposed Hasselblad
camera. Hasselblad said it would raise costs 30% for a re-design.
It's likely more will die and innovation will suffer because of it.
Much as optical glass mfg and certain metal finishing processes died
in the U.S.
So, off goes camera mfg'ing lock stock and barrel to China, which
(thanks to the odious Kyoto agreement) does not HAVE any
pollution controls.

That's interesting. Please point me to the part of the "odious Kyoto
agreement" which refers to this. I thought the Kyoto Protocol was to
do with the production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
I wasn't aware it had anything to do with any other kinds of
pollution.

Andrew.

Kyoto doesn't have anything to do with this. This is the RoHs (pronounced
row-hoss) directive from our friends in the EU. And if my Aerospace PCB
manufactures here in the US and EU can figure out how to work within the
restriction, why can't H-Bald?

Just like anything new, there's a learner curve and some capital
investment, but once you're setup, you're good to go. Although, there is a
****ing match going on about the performance & reliability of lead-free
solder... I guess time will tell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoHS_Directive
_____
Slack

It doesn't pertain to land or water pollution, but China has no
controls on those either.
Many Third World cities (China's included) are so polluted they are
dangerous to visit.
Kyoto's problem is it set a precident that basically exempted
"developing" nations from
virtually any control of air pollution. If you can call China a
developing nation now it controls
most of the World's production and has an economy growing at about 9% a
year.

Well, Hasselblad probably doesn't sell enough cameras where they can
adapt economically
enough to stay in the black. Lead free solder, much like lead free gas
does not work
as well as leaded solder and leaded gas. They learned how to live
without lead in gasoline
(thanks mainly to stronger steels being used in valve trains) but the
solder problem is
a major one.

On 8 May 2006 23:05:22 -0700, "RichA" wrote:

Well, Hasselblad probably doesn't sell enough cameras where they can
adapt economically
enough to stay in the black. Lead free solder, much like lead free gas
does not work
as well as leaded solder and leaded gas. They learned how to live
without lead in gasoline
(thanks mainly to stronger steels being used in valve trains) but the
solder problem is
a major one.

It's not just the solder used in the process - many components (e.g.
BGA ICs) may need replacement, and there aren't always RoHS compliant
alternatives available.

/JB