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Villanova
Center for the Environment hosts workshop on advances in lead-free solder
By Dana Imperia '05
Villanova’s Center for the Environment (VCE) located
in the
 College
of Engineering, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), sponsored a
workshop on the “Advances in Lead-Free Solder” on Nov. 18 in CEER 01.
Attended by EPA members, local government and
industry professionals, the workshop consisted of a dialogue between
electronic industry leaders on lead-free technologies. Representatives from
many companies such as Lockheed Martine, Visteon Corp. and Lord Corp.
attended the meeting and representatives from the government provided
guidance for smaller companies. They discussed the European Union RoHS
Directive that will require all electronic and electrical products to be
lead free by June 2006 if they are to be marketed in Europe.
Dr. Barry Johnson, dean of the College, Dr.
Milton Cole, assistant vice president for Research and Sponsored Projects;
and Dr. Rominder P.S. Suri, P.E., director of the Villanova Center for the
Environment and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering,
opened the workshop with a 20-minute introduction, followed by several guest
speakers: Tad Radzinski, P. E. Waste Minimization Program National Expert,
EPA Region III; Jim McElroy, executive director and CEO of National
Electronics Manufacturing Initiative; Karl Seelig, vice president of
Technology, AIM; Dennis Barbini, Advanced Technologies manager, Vitronics
Soltec; and Jack Geibig, acting director, Center for Clean Products and
Clean Technologies at the University of Tennessee. The workshop ended with a
roundtable discussion on the electronic industries’ future direction.
“The focus of this workshop at the University was to
share state of the art technologies that are being developed and used by the
industry to have products with lead-free solder. The attendees learned what
type of alternative alloys to lead they could use and which pitfalls to
watch out for. The workshop was very timely for the companies in our region
because the RoHS deadline is very near,” Suri said.
This
workshop is part of the recently established “Partnership on Industrial
Waste Minimization and Sustainability” between EPA and VCE. The event was
sponsored by EPA and DEP.
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