ITASCA, IL — Kester will provide lead-free soldering products, lead-free resources and technologies in booth 1660 at the upcoming APEX 2008 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place April 1-3, 2008, in Las Vegas. Kester will present its latest lead-free soldering products and technologies for lead-free wave, selective and hand-soldering applications.

Kester’s Peter Biocca, Senior Market Development Engineer, will moderate Session S15 in the Backward Compatibility: Where Leaded and Lead-Free Collide tract of the technical conference from 9-10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 2, 2008. Although RoHS mandates that most leaded products migrate to lead-free processes, the legislation also specifies that certain classes of products are exempt. Even with exempt status, leaded assembly operations still have to deal with the lead-free reality of a vastly changed supply chain. What are the reliability and assembly pitfalls of manufacturing leaded products in a world that is rapidly moving to lead-free? This session will provide attendees with the latest reliability and assembly studies where leaded and lead-free collide.

Peter also will moderate Session S25 in the Cleaning tract of the technical conference program from 1:30-3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2, 2008. Cleaning remains a vital process in both fabrication and assembly. New material technologies, higher temperatures and denser assemblies all pose challenges to cleaning in today’s environment. This session will discuss the newest materials and processes developed to meet those challenges.

The technical conference held during APEX is known worldwide as one of the finest and most selective in the world. Key industry players will present new research and innovations in the areas of board design and manufacture, and electronics assembly. Additionally, there will be sessions that focus on manufacturing software, backwards compatibility and 3-D packaging as well as the conference’s annual focus on key areas such as soldering, assembly processes, advanced packaging, materials and reliability.

Additionally, David Scheiner will host the Solder Alloy Task Group meeting on Monday, March 31, 2008 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. This task group is gathering new information for amendments to J-STD-006B, “Requirements for Electronic Grade Solder Alloys and Fluxed and Non-Fluxed Solid Solders for Electronic Soldering Applications.”

As always, Kester's global lead-free team of technical engineers will be present to answer all lead-free questions that companies may have about lead-free assembly. Be sure to stop by booth 1660 for more information.