Why is leaded solder still the default option for Chinese PCB manufacturers? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2025, 11:48:17 pm
content: Something I've been wondering recently...When ordering boards from JLCPCB the default and also least expensive option is Leaded HASL. The other lead-free options all cost more. Given that having leaded and lead-free processes requires completely separate lines that you can't cross contaminate, and a lot of the world actually cares about RoHS, why is leaded still the default with the Chinese PCB manufacturers? I would imagine a significant portion of their sales are to foreign countries.My local assembly house charges more for leaded assembly since it makes up such a small part of the jobs they do these days. Why is this not also the case for bare boards? Who is ordering so many leaded boards that it makes it the cheapest option?Note: Yes I know the history of lead vs lead-free solder. I'm not a lead-free zealot. If it were up to me, I would use leaded solder for most things. But if a large portion of the world is going to have a prohibition on lead solder and we need to operate in that world, then that's the rules of the game.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 01:02:41 am
content: My best guess is to discourage commercial use for cheap boards. If you are a hobbyist, you probably don't care and may even prefer leaded solder. But if you are doing even small scale commercial production, you likely want lead free stuff.So, it is not that leaded is naturally cheaper, but it is more heavily discounted as a loss leader.

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 01:58:01 am
content: Perhaps "leaded solder" really means "alloy not controlled, probably leaded".I am thinking of the "waste" solder that comes off during HASL. I imagine they recycle it by putting it back into the solder baths as a minority ingredient. It's cheaper to bag it all as one than it is to track & keep the waste streams separate. They might also buy unsorted waste solder as one of their input streams for wave soldering baths to save costs.Also lead is cheaper than tin by volume.

author: Rat_Patrol
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 02:27:37 am
content: Quote from: Whales on October 13, 2025, 01:58:01 amInteresting and very plausible take.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 03:21:56 am
content: Quote from: ataradov on October 13, 2025, 01:02:41 amNot sure if I buy this.. Their whole business model is about giving you cheap prototypes in hopes you will do a bigger commercial run after.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 03:23:43 am
content: Quote from: Whales on October 13, 2025, 01:58:01 amAlso not sure I buy this either. Reusing old solder, or sourcing random scrap and using it in their lines would lower their quality and reliability a ton. If their goal is to get you to commit to a production run, then that relies on shipping high quality boards all the time, even for prototypes.

author: cunningfellow
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 03:25:17 am
content: Quote from: Smokey on October 13, 2025, 03:21:56 amBut they also want to charge more for the commercial run for more profit.So whilst I am not saying this is the reason, it fits the logic of a loss leader.Sell them cheap leaded version to get them hooked. When they need to go RoHS for a commercial product they are already your dealer.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 03:30:44 am
content: Quote from: Smokey on October 13, 2025, 03:21:56 amSure, but they are fully aware that absolute majority of prototype orders don't turn into the full ones because people use them to get one off PCBs. And they are optimizing for this by lowering the price as much as they can. But if you lower it enough, people may try to use prototype service for commercial applications, which they want to be sold at a higher price.They also recently started charging separately for full perimeter routing to eliminate paneling tabs. I guess the same reason - you can either tolerate the tabs or remove them manually for the prototypes. Or pay a bit extra for them to do that for you.

author: DimitriP
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 03:49:16 am
content: Quote"Looking for something in particular or just browsing?"

author: JLCPCB Official
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 07:35:36 am
content: Hello , At JLCPCB, leaded HASL remains the default mainly because it’s still the most widely used and cost-effective finish among our global customer base, especially for prototyping and hobbyist orders. Many customers continue to prefer leaded HASL due to its excellent solderability, long shelf life, and lower cost.While lead-free HASL and ENIG are fully available for customers needing RoHS-compliant or high-reliability boards, they do involve higher processing temperatures and stricter production control, which adds to the cost.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 08:17:58 am
content: Quote from: Smokey on October 12, 2025, 11:48:17 pmMy guess would be that it's cheaper, much easier to work with, more reliable (there's a reason why it was the universal default for decades), and a lot of their work will be small runs for hobbyist or non-public-sale use where you're not too fussed about RoHS. If you are, you pay more and switch to the alternative. It's like why they use 1oz/0.5oz copper by default, which will be good enough for most people.

author: Infraviolet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 07:53:42 pm
content: I do wonder, in practical senses would it be bad to use leaded solder for adding components to boards made with the lead-free coating process? And would vice-versa be bad too, using lead-free solder on leaded HASL boards? Either case you're no longer lead-free, but I'm meaning "bad" here in the context of whether it would cause joints to me more failure-prone or tin-whiskers to be more likely than when going fully leaded or fully lead-free?Also, just a guess but... given that the price of solder alloy is already rather higher than simply that of lead or tin, and given that the material price is only going to make a tiny difference compared to the other costs involved in producing PCBs, the difference between lead and tin prices can't matter much?On this topic too: People talk about things like 60/40 solder being cheaper than 63/37 due to tin being pricier, but for that sort of thing surely the 60/40 is cheaper because it probably doesn't get made in quite as precisely measured as ratio as perfectly eutectic 63/37 does?

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 07:57:31 pm
content: It is bad to mix the two for anything outside of prototypes. Some of the resulting combinations are really brittle.The price differences in may cases are mostly due to manufacturer's desired margin and perceived (or real) brand quality.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 11:11:06 pm
content: Quote from: Infraviolet on October 13, 2025, 07:53:42 pmSpeaking just for myself I solder EVERYTHING with 2% or 3% silver loaded lead tin solder and I've never had a problem with it, even on boards that were originally soldered with some kind of rohs solder (alloy unknown). I've been using the silver loaded solder exclusively for probably 30 years now. I've repaired hundreds of items and to my knowledge not a one has failed again. I still have probably close to 40 pounds of lead tin solder but I doubt that I'll ever use it, except for making alloy for bullet casting. I won't use Rohs compliant solderfor anything!I've never had a repaired circuit board analyzed in a laboratory so I don't know about tin whiskers or other possible issues, all I know is that not one of my customers has ever returned an item or told me that it had failed again.

author: Rat_Patrol
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2025, 11:36:07 pm
content: I always try to use leaded solder on ENIG PCBs unless the customer REALLY needs lead free.First prototypes are HASL leaded always, switch to ENIG when we are building up the final profile.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2025, 11:41:24 pm
content: Because protoype is (used to, probably still is) excluded from RoHS , leaded solder is cheap, and in reality, lead does NOT leach out of solder joints.

author: Alphatronique
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2025, 11:50:13 pm
content: many tech got lead poisoning including myself ,so yes at some point handle it is not 100%new allow work good here in the shop for past 25 year we are 100% lead free

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2025, 11:51:12 pm
content: Quote from: Alphatronique on October 14, 2025, 11:50:13 pmIf you stop chewing on the end of the solder..

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2025, 01:11:27 am
content: The only electronics techs that I ever knew that got lead poisoning were the ones that habitually smoked cigarettes. I'm serious! And after the TelCos and other places that I worked banned smoking inside I never heard of another case of lead poisoning, even though many of the techs still smoked but not in the shop while they were working.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2025, 01:27:38 am
content: Quote from: Stray Electron on October 15, 2025, 01:11:27 amprobably cause lead in their tobacco ( and other heavy metals) , and not washing their hands after having handled leaded solder. those were different times. They were smoking while they were soldering, inhaling all the flux smoke... gloves and safety glasses were unheard off.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2025, 08:51:02 pm
content: Quote from: Alphatronique on October 14, 2025, 11:50:13 pmWhat sort of tech? There is zero reason you should get lead poisoning working on electronics in any sort of modern workplace. But WorkSafe could do a bit better monitoring of stuff like that.

author: Zoli
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2025, 05:41:19 am
content: Quote from: thm_w on October 15, 2025, 08:51:02 pmWorkSafe regarding the leaded solder: hazardous material. Translation: you have to use hazmat suit in touch with the leaded solder - directly from a WorkSafe rep.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2025, 06:48:36 am
content: I also don’t think the “loss leader” and “using waste solder” theories hold water.One potential aspect that hasn’t been mentioned: the ability to use older equipment. I expect that it is not economical to “decontaminate” a HASL machine that has had lead in it, such that it would meet the RoHS thresholds. So while lead-free HASL had to get new equipment, the leaded HASL line could continue to use equipment that was amortized long ago.(This is similar to why it costs more to have components smaller than 0402 placed: the smaller components require newer, higher-precision pick-and-place machines, while 0402 and larger can use older machines that were paid off years ago.)

author: peter-h
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2025 01:17:34 pm
content: Leaded solder is much better in every respect- lower melting point (less damage etc)- much better wetting (SAC305 is not too bad if you buy Almit at £70/500g)- much better for fine pitch chips due to less bridgingso most hobbyists, and a lot of companies doing prototypes, uses 60/40 leaded solder.Personally I get gold on PCBs, even on prototypes, to get the shelf life, but it costs a lot more.Leaded solder is safe from "lead fumes" because the lead is not hot enough to give off lead vapour. The flux can be dangerous, but same goes for unleaded.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2025 04:23:20 pm
content: Quote from: peter-h onYesterdayat 01:17:34 pm(Numbering added)While I don’t actually disagree with your conclusion of “if you don’thaveto use lead-free, leaded is nicer” (though I prefer 63/37 over 60/40), I suspect your experience with lead-free is outdated. The following responses are, unless otherwise noted, referring to modern lead-free alloys (not the ancient SAC305) such as Sn100Ni+ using modern fluxes developed for lead-free solder.1. “Slightly better” is more realistic. Older alloys, especially used with fluxes designed for leaded solder, were clearly harder to work with. But modern ones are much nicer.2. Yep, though IMHO this is mostly an issue in doing repairs to old devices. Besides, many people solder with leaded solder way too hot anyway, making the damage argument somewhat moot.3. While 63/37 is superb in this regard, newer lead-free alloys with trace amounts of nickel and germanium flow MUCH better than the lead-free alloys without them. Besides, a huge amount of the wetting action is determined by the flux. The same alloy with two different fluxes can flow very differently, whether leaded or lead-free.4. That’s really down to the flux and technique more than anything. A weak flux will make the process more susceptible to bridging, but technique is crucial: if you’re soldering very hot and long, so the flux is spent or burnt off, you’re going to struggle with bridging no matter what.So far, the best lead-free solder I’ve used is Felder’s Sn100Ni+ (Sn100NiGe) with “ISO-Core Ultra-Clear” flux. It’s so good that I would actually choose it over poorer-performing 60/40 solders! It flows so well that despite having a melting point 10C higher than SAC305, it flows better than the latter at the same temperature. I only need to increase my tip perhaps 20-30C higher than I usually use for leaded!In all fairness, I should test Felder’s own SAC305 with the same ISO-Core Ultra-Clear flux, just to establish the effect of the flux itself, as well as compare the ISO-Core Ultra-Clear (REL0, 2.2%) with the ISO-Core Clear (REL1, 3.5%) fluxes.