Halogen-free materials are gaining popularity in a market that will remain halogen dominated in the near future. Fluxes and other materials that contain <900ppm Cl and <900ppm Br account for an estimated 6.1% of the electronics market, which is up from 4% in 2007.
Even though this is still a small market, why not design the latest and greatest fluxes without intentionally added halogens? That’s exactly what we did. Halogen-Free fluxes have come a long way, and are preferred in some applications even when “Halogen-Free” is not a necessity. If you would have asked me 3 years ago I probably would have said halogenated fluxes will always be superior – and I would be kicking myself for saying that today.
For more info on Halogen-Free trends check out Tim Jensen’s blog.