A Web-based course on designing and manufacturing lead-free products

Since 2/13/2003, lead-free has been a law in the European Union. The implementation date is 7/1/2006. That means, starting from that date, all electronic equipment cannot be made in and shipped to the EU if they have lead content right now, the electronics industry is working/learning very hard to design and manufacture lead-free products. The objective of this paper is to develop a Web-based course on designing and manufacturing of lead-free products. It contains teaching modules on the key elements of lead-free products and can be modified to produce short courses for practicing engineering professionals and extended for delivery on the Web to a wide variety of audiences. By teaching it as an Internet-based course, it can be provided to universities and associated learning institutions, which then have the opportunity to select and arrange the modules in difference ways to customize the courses for their students and sponsors.