Research concerning the separation and recovery of used printed wiring board solder

In recent years, with industries becoming more concerned about environmental problems, there has been a noticeable move toward regulating the use of lead in Europe and other regions. In line with this, there has been an increase in research concerning lead-free solder and its use as a substitute for regular solder. However, even if lead-free solder is used in newly developed products, products already on the market will still incorporate regular solder. This paper reports the results of tests using experimental equipment to verify a method of separating and recovering solder from the printed wiring boards (PWBs) of products to be scrapped.