With the conversion to Lead-Free Soldering hitting full stride, the importance of Lead-Free testing has become an integral part of the soldering process.

European Union law (RoHS, WEEE) restricts the use of six hazardous chemicals in Electronic equipment: lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl, polybrominated biphenyl ethers and cadmium. By July 1, 2006, the EU will not accept any products for import containing lead, with very few exceptions. With this in mind, companies worldwide are seeing the need to keep strict solder paste testing standards.

Up until now, the only method of testing for lead in your solder was to send a sample away for a metal analysis test. This usually requires a 1-2 week test result waiting period.

The Malcom STA-2 Solder Impurity Tester allows you to test the lead and copper content of your sample in less than 1 hour, at your production site.