Never wish for a regulation to go away. It will inevitably be replaced with something more onerous, more restrictive, and more asinine as the pen pushers in charge want to show how important they are.

I read my July EIM today. There was a very interesting add about why model engineers should vote to leave. It concentrated on the EU rules for boilers and the switch to more expensive, poorer performing 55% silver solder. I was surprised and delighted to see it. I doubt Neil would have allowed it in MEW.

I think it will stay or have atleast a british replacement, we wont see that for many years but maybe someday. The mark is good for trade so many will keep it even if they aren't obliged to use it.

The B.S.I is and was an excellent institution that pretty much provided the the entire basis on standards we should be proud of. It wasn't in the pockets of cronyism like alot of other countries standards were, simply bent to their own purposes and obeyed/ignored at will. 

Our system stands alot more to reason and fact to protect the quality of the actual product and therefore it's users also. Alot of the I.S.Os seem like a carbon copy of the old BSI standards. But, all the more reason to be proud of just how good a system it was.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 24/06/2016 10:40:22

I'm a little confused by what you mean by better. Perhaps leaded soft solder provides a superior bond but i haven't found it flows better, if anything the cored solder i've found to be the easiest to use, i think theres mainly tin in that.

MIchael W

If you actually dealt with the regulations rather than read about them on the front page of a comic, you'd know that CE marking simply declares that you have met all the applicable safety standards that apply within all the countries in Europe. This is actually a Good Thing:

Whether you talking about US, Canada, EU, Scandinavia, Korea, Japan, Australia or wherever, you are legally obliged to obtain any applicable safety certification before you may sell your products in that country. I know, because I've spent the last 30 years doing just that. Before the CE mark, it was necessary to get products approved in each of the EU member countries you wanted to sell in (UK, Germany etc etc ….). Now, one mark does it all (within EU) and the standards within Europe have been "harmonised" to cut down on the regulatory work. Doesn't play well with the EU bashers though, who like to present it as the exact opposite. Of course, you still need to have your products approved for all the other markets that aren't harmonised. It's expensive and time consuming and is far from just a formality, as you often have to make late changes to the product to comply.

Unless we plan to completely stop selling products to Europe, we will still need to CE mark.And even if we get rid of the CE mark within the UK, any standards that replace it will be almost indistinguishable. Over the years, harmonisation has been a global process so that the requirements for the N American and European markets have converged. It's sensible really, as the requirements are based on decades of knowledge and experience, often based on actual death and injury.So for instance, the global generic electrical safety standard is arguably EN 60950 / BS EN 60950 / UL60950 / CSA 22 etc etc. Call it what you will but it's all based on IEC 60950 which has much of its roots in our old BS stds.

The IEC that sets these standards was originally formed in the UK to coordinate international safety standards. Nothing to do with the EU, I'm afraid.

Murray

.

How long do you think cored solder has been around.? – It's certainly not a new product that was brought out to meet new regulations.

I recall using it as a young lad in the early 70's. No doubt someone more senior to me will tell us when it was first introduced.

Nick

I just was confused thats all, i have a reel of 60/40 pure tin/lead and it doesn't flow readily and presumably the better stuff i was referring to was just the roisin cored equivilent.

Michael W

The reason for moving to lead free solder for electronics was and is to reduce the heavy metal leaching into the ground water around landfill. This became a problem with the high increase in dumping of consumer electronics. Lead in the environment is also the reason we are all driving on unleaded petrol. It's cleaner all round. There is no ban on selling 60/40 leaded solder only restrictions on sale/disposal of electronics built with it. We (our workshop) generally does not use lead free because we don't build stuff to sell and we operate by hand soldering assembly processes. The vast majority of joints in electronics are automated and lead free does not pose problems.

regards Martin

I just cut a strip off a small circuit board … then realised I was probably breathing in lead dust

This is interesting:

http://www.quantumalloys.com/data/electronic/erzin.html

Neil

Nice and precise Rod. The same thing will apply to just about everything we might buy. In order to sell into the EU what ever standards they choose to have will still apply to all goods that are sold there. In the past this area has been used for protectionism and there may even be a growth in that now.

John

–

Quite. That's because the British Standards are now just the Normes Europeans with different covers. I used to work on BSI committees and later all of the work transferred to the European ones with more or less the same people involved.

We can't go back to the pre-EU British standards as they are hopelessly out of date and we would have no chance of exporting anything.

As far as restrictions on the use of cadmium (for example in Easy-Flow) is concerned, I remember in the early 1970s having to change from cadmium plating on metalwork to zinc plating, as the Swedes had banned it pre-EU over concerns with cancer.

Russell.

And employ a load more people to work at BSI ?

John

–