Lead Solder Alloys - Applications of

metallurgical properties in Electrical

Conductivity
A report

Material Science Assignment

Group 1 (Roll 1 to 27)

Section A, 3rd Semester
Department of Mechatronics
Manipal Institute of Technology
Manipal, INDIA.
Soldering alloys:-

There are many different types of soldering alloys. They depend on the different
compositions of the various materials used in the alloy. The main ingredients being lead
(major) and silver (minor).

Price of the soldering material changes for different compositions. Some alloys are relatively
cheap. A spool may cost a few hundreds of Indian rupees while others are much costlier. A
Single wrong choice will cost you more money, time and effort. Hence it is a good idea to
know the different types of alloys.

Therefore various references were developed with respect to the variety of the alloys. The
following reference covers solder alloys which feature melting points from about 50C to
about 400C, both lead based and lead free. They're also known as soft solders. Most of them
are patent free. The information below has been gathered mostly from product data sheets of
various manufacturers such as Indium Corp. of America, Alpha Metals (Cookson Group),
Stannol and others. The alloys are labeled by their metal percentages, but there also
commercial and historical names included. Those commercial alloy numbers are shared
widely among manufacturers. For instance, Indalloy 281, Ostalloy 281 and AsarcoLo 281
refer to the same alloy of 58% bismuth and 42% tin. In this case, 281 stands for the melting
point in F, but such a number may have a different meaning for other alloys.

Some alloys have single melting point like most other materials. Thus, whenever certain
temperature is reached the alloy will completely change its state to liquid. There are also
some alloys which wont completely change their composition at a specific temperature.
These alloys will be completely solid below a temperature called the solidus temperature.
They are in pure liquid phase above a temperature. In between these they lie in a semisolid
state. However for ease of soldering it is preferred that the temperatures have minimal
difference. . When temperature is between solidus and liquidus, an alloy is in so called plastic
state due to some liquid and solid content present at the same time.

Soldering theory:

Soldering is a process in which two or more metallic items are joined together by melting
and flowing a filler metal into the joint, the filler metal having a lower Melting pt than the
adjoining metal. Soldering differs from welding in that soldering does not involve melting the
work pieces. In brazing, the filler metal melts at a higher temperature, but the work piece
metal does not melt. In the past, nearly all solders contained lead, but environmental concerns
have increasingly dictated use of lead-free alloys for electronics and plumbing purposes.
Soldering filler materials are available in many different alloys for differing applications. In
electronics assembly, the eutectic alloy of 63% tin and 37% lead (or 60/40, which is almost
identical in melting point) has been the alloy of choice. Other alloys are used for plumbing,
mechanical assembly, and other applications. Some examples of soft-solder are tin-lead for
general purposes, tin-zinc for joining aluminum, lead-silver for strength at higher than room
temperature, cadmium-silver for strength at high temperatures, zinc-aluminum for aluminum
and corrosion resistance, and tin-silver and tin-bismuth for electronics.

As our studies are concerned with electrical applications of soldering given below is an
usurp from a text on proper electrical soldering. This will make sure if the component has
been properly soldered or not. In case of oxidation of the solder, its electrical conductivity
changes due to the dissolution of the removal of all free or most electrons in bonds.

Soldering is quickly heating the metal parts to be joined, then applying a flux and a solder to
the mating surfaces. The finished solder joint metallurgically bonds the parts - forming an
excellent electrical connection between wires and a strong mechanical joint between the
metal parts. Heat is supplied with a soldering iron or other means. The flux is a chemical
cleaner which prepares the hot surfaces for the molten solder. The solder is a low melting
point alloy of non-ferrous metals.

Solder and Flux

Solder is a metal or metallic alloy used, when melted, to join metallic surfaces together. The
most common alloy is some combination of tin and lead. Certain tin-lead alloys have a lower
melting point than the parent metals by themselves. The most common alloys used for
electronics work are 60/40 and 63/37. The chart below shows the differences in melting
points of some common solder alloys.

Tin/Lead Melting Point

40/60 460 degrees F (230 degrees C)

50/50 418 degrees F (214 degrees C)

60/40 374 degrees F (190 degrees C)

63/37 364 degrees F (183 degrees C)

95/5 434 degrees F (224 degrees C)

Most soldering jobs can be done with fluxcored solder (solder wire with the flux in a "core")
when the surfaces to be joined are already clean or can be cleaned of rust, dirt and grease.
Flux can also be applied by other means. Flux only cleans oxides off the surfaces to be
soldered. It does not remove dirt, soot, oils, silicone, etc.

Physical and Mechanical Properties of Lead Solder Alloys

Te
Ten
nsile
Elec Therm sile Brin
Melting P D Streng
trical al Elongati ell
oint, C ensity th
Solder Alloy Resistiv Conducti on Hardne
solidus / liqu , at Bre
ity, vity, at Break ss,
idus g/cm ak,
m W/mK , HB
kgf/cm
%

alloys of tin (Sn) and lead (Pb) with or without silver (Ag)
Sn90Pb10 7. 49
183 / 213 - - 40 -
(alloy #118) 55 0

Sn63Pb37 8. 0.14 52
183 / 183 50 37 17
(alloy #106) 40 5 5

Sn62.5Pb36.1
8. 0.14 49
Ag1.4 179 / 179 50 - 16
41 5 0
(alloy #104)

Sn60Pb40 8. 0.15 53
183 / 191 49 40 16
(alloy #109) 50 3 5

Sn55Pb45 8.
183 / 200 - - - - -
(alloy #113) 68

Sn50Pb50 or
8. 0.15 42
Pb50Sn50 183 / 212 48 35 14
87 8 0
(alloy #116)

Pb55Sn45 or
9. 0.16
Sn45Pb55 183 / 227 - - - -
07 6
(alloy #125)

Pb60Sn40 or
9. 0.17 38
Sn40Pb60 183 / 238 44 25 12
28 1 0
(alloy #130)
 Pb65Sn35 or
9. 0.17
Sn35Pb65 183 / 247 - - - 12
50 6
(alloy #135)

Pb70Sn30 or
9. 0.18 35
Sn30Pb70 183 / 257 41 18 12
72 5 0
(alloy #141)

Pb75Sn25 or
9. 0.19 24
Sn25Pb75 183 / 268 - 53 11
96 4 0
(alloy #145)

Pb80Sn20 or
10 0.19 34
Sn20Pb80 183 / 280 37 20 11
.21 8 0
(alloy #149)

Pb85Sn15 or
10 33
Sn15Pb85 183 / 288 - - - 11
.70 0
(alloy #153)

Pb88Sn10Ag0
10 0.20 23
2 267 / 290 27 42 -
.75 3 0
(alloy #228)

Pb90Sn10 or
10 0.19 31
Sn10Pb90 275 / 302 25 30 10
.75 4 0
(alloy #159)

Pb92.5Sn05A
11 0.20 29
g2.5 287 / 296 - - -
.02 0 5
(alloy #151)

Pb95Sn05 or
11 0.19 28
Sn05Pb95 308 / 312 23 45 8
.06 6 0
(alloy #171)

Pb97.5Ag1.5S
11 0.28 31
n01 309 / 309 23 23 9
.28 7 0
(alloy #165)

alloys of bismuth (Bi) and / or cadmium (Ca) with tin (Sb) and / or lead (Pb)
Bi58Sn42 8. 0.38 56
138 / 138 19 55 23
(alloy #281) 56 3 5

Sn60Bi40 8. 0.34 52
138 / 170 30 35 24
(alloy #281-338) 12 5 5

Bi55.5Pb44.5 10 0.43 45
124 / 124 4 38 15
(alloy #255) .44 1 0

Sn43Pb43Bi1 144 / 163 9. - - 45 41 -

 4 02 0
(alloy #97)

Sn51.2Pb30.6
8. 44
Cd18.2 145 / 145 - 35 - -
45 0
(alloy #181)

alloys of indium (In) with lead (Pb) and / or tin (Sn) and / or silver (Ag)
In70Pb30 8. 0.19 24
165 / 175 38 - -
(alloy #204) 19 6 5

In60Pb40 8. 0.24 29
173 / 181 29 - -
(alloy #205) 52 6 0

In50Pb50 or P
8. 0.28 33
b50In50 184 / 210 22 55 10
86 7 0
(alloy #7)

Pb60In40 9. 0.33 35
197 / 231 19 - -
(alloy #206) 30 2 0

Pb75In25 9. 0.37 38
240 / 260 18 48 10
(alloy #10) 97 5 5

Pb81In19 10 0.38 39
260 / 275 17 - -
(alloy #150) .27 3 0

Pb95In05 11 0.33 30
300 / 313 21 52 6
(alloy #11) .06 8 5

In52Sn48 7. 0.14 12
118 / 118 34 83 5
(alloy #1E) 30 7 0

In50Sn50 or S
7. 0.14 12
n50In50 118 / 125 34 83 5
30 7 0
(alloy #1)

In97Ag03 7. 0.07
143 / 143 73 55 - 2
(alloy #290) 38 5

In90Ag10 7. 0.07 11
143 / 237 67 61 3
(alloy #3) 54 8 5

In80Pb15Ag0
7. 0.13 18
5 149 / 154 43 58 5
85 3 0
(alloy #2)

Pb90In05Ag0
11 0.30 40
5 290 / 310 25 23 9
.00 8 5
(alloy #12)

Pb92.5In05Ag 300 / 310 11 0.31 25 32 - -

 2.5 .02 3 0
(alloy #164)

Sn77.2In20Ag
7. 0.17 48
2.8 175 / 187 54 47 17
25 6 0
(alloy #227)

Sn37.5Pb37.5I
8. 0.22 37
n25 134 / 181 23 101 10
42 1 0
(alloy #5)

Sn54Pb26In2
8.
0 136 / 152 - - - - -
05
(alloy #230)

Sn70Pb18In1
7. 0.14 37
2 154 / 167 45 136 12
79 1 5
(alloy #9)

low temperature alloys

In51.0Bi32.5S
n16.5 7. 0.52 34
60 / 60 - - 11
(alloy #19 or 88 2 0
Field's alloy)

Bi50Pb26.7Sn
13.3Cd10 9. 0.43 42
70 / 70 18 120 15
(alloy #158 or 58 1 0
Wood's alloy)

Bi52Pb30Sn1
8 9. 0.75 36
96 / 96 13 100 16
(alloy #39 or 60 0 5
Newton's alloy)

Bi50Pb28Sn2
2 9.
100 / 100 - - - - -
(alloy #41 or 44
Rose's alloy)
Phase Diagram of Lead Solder Alloy:

Eutectic Phase Diagram of Tin & Lead

A mixture of lead (Pb) & tin (Sn) is eutectic because these metals are only partially soluble
in each other when in the solid state. Lead & tin have different crystal structures (FCC versus
BCT) and lead atoms are much larger. No more than 19.2% by weight of solid tin can
dissolve in solid lead and no more than 2.5% of solid lead can dissolve in solid tin. The solid
lead-tin alloy thus consists of a mixture of two solid phases, one consisting of a lead-rich
solid (alpha, -phase) that can dissolve in a maximum of 19.2 wt% tin (Sn) at 183C (more at
higher temperature), and one consisting of a tin-rich (beta, -phase) that can dissolve in a
maximum of 2.5 wt% lead (Pb) at 183C (more at higher temperature).
For example, above 260C 40 wt%; tin in a tin-lead mixture will be a completely intermixed
liquid. The liquidus line separates pure liquid phase from phases which can be mixtures of
liquid and solid. The solidus line separates mixtures of liquid and solid from pure solid (pure
-phase or pure -phase at extremes of concentration). Just below the liquidus line
40 wt% tin in a tin-lead mixture will have some solid -phase tin-lead (12 wt% tin
proeutectic) and the rest a mixture of tin-lead liquid. As temperature drops, the amount of
solid -phase tin-lead in the liquid-solid mixture increases, and the percentage of tin in the -
phase increases until the temperature reaches 183C and the mixture becomes completely
solid partially -phase (19.2 wt% tin) and partially -phase (97.5 wt% tin) tin-lead
mixture, along with some proeutectic solid. A solvus line delineates temperatures below
which tin and lead are completely immiscible. Solidification in the alpha proeutectic region
consists of layered growth of solid nodules with each layer containing a higher
concentration of tin. This layering of increasing concentrations of tin is called coring. Faster
cooling results in reduced coring.

The word eutectic is derived from Greek roots meaning "easily melted". A eutectic mixture
has a eutectic composition for which complete liquefaction occurs at a lower temperature (the
eutectic temperature) than for any other composition. For lead & tin the eutectic composition
is 61.9 wt.% tin and the eutectic temperature is 183C which makes this mixture useful as
solder. At 183C, compositions of greater than 61.9 wt.% tin result in precipitation of a tin-
rich solid in the liquid mixture, whereas compositions of less than 61.9 wt.% tin result in
precipitation of lead-rich solid.

References:

SOLID-LIQUID PHASE DIAGRAMS: TIN AND LEAD

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/phaseeqia/snpb.html

http://www.ae.utexas.edu/courses/ase324_huang/Lecture7.pdf

Phase diagrams from

http://www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/cgi-bin/search.pl?term1=phase+diagrams&limit=0