Stained Glass Soldering

[SmartHeat]

Is there an industry accepted test to evaluate stained glass soldering and / or a recognized third party that performs such testing?

OK International has manufactured soldering systems for high reliability electronic soldering for 25 years, but due to their high sales price we have never considered stained glass soldering.  The combination of a new lower priced system and recent success soldering thin solar cells with tip tempertures around 250 degress C has us questioning our assumptions. 

[Vic Rothman]

"Is there an industry accepted test to evaluate stained glass soldering and / or a recognized third party that performs such testing?

No/I don't think so"


"OK International has manufactured soldering systems for high reliability electronic soldering for 25 years, but due to their high sales price we have never considered stained glass soldering.  The combination of a new lower priced system and recent success soldering thin solar cells with tip tempertures around 250 degress C has us questioning our assumptions."

Why do you think this is important? 

[SmartHeat]

Vic, thanks for your post.  Soldering thin solar cells is probably one application that is more demanding than stained glass soldering.  The thin glass will deform with temperature variations and in extreme cases will crack.  Pressure to improve heat flow will also crack the cells on contact.  Soldering at a temperature only 20 to 40 degrees C over the melting point of lead free solder eliminated these defects.  I had heard that stained glass fabrication had similar problems with glass cracking during soldering due to the higher temperatures most manufacturers recommend when switching to lead free solder.  I am looking for some help and determining if our assumptions are true.  I am not pretending to know anything about stained glass soldering.

[Vic Rothman]

Vic, thanks for your post.  Soldering thin solar cells is probably one application that is more demanding than stained glass soldering.  The thin glass will deform with temperature variations and in extreme cases will crack.  Pressure to improve heat flow will also crack the cells on contact.  Soldering at a temperature only 20 to 40 degrees C over the melting point of lead free solder eliminated these defects.  I had heard that stained glass fabrication had similar problems with glass cracking during soldering due to the higher temperatures most manufacturers recommend when switching to lead free solder.  I am looking for some help and determining if our assumptions are true.  I am not pretending to know anything about stained glass soldering.

My guess is that the vast majority of stained glass people do not use lead free solder. If someone is cracking glass while soldering it is probibly due to their inexperence, not the soldering iron temperatures.

[BobPi]

I use lead free solder. I'm not a professional but I am good at what I do. I'm trying out IA-423 from Johnson Eng, and from now on I'm not using regular solder anymore. I'm middle aged, and when I get older I don't want to think about how I've damaged my health with toxins I knew about. I built an assembly table with ventilation pulling off one side, but the airflow isn't enough to make me feel really comfortable. Not only that, but I feel bad about dispersing ounces or pounds of lead into the environment every year.

As to the temperature, it's something to get used to. The 423 degree F melting point of the Johnson solder makes it handle differently. Not better or worse, really, it just plays different. I'm sure a solder that melts at 250 would also handle differently. Maybe better, maybe worse. I'd have to play with it to see how it feels. How big a pool of liquid solder do I get? How easy is it to smooth a long run? How easy to work in a tight joint? Between high heat solders and a very low temperature ones, I bet they are do not work similarly.

Besides the feel, there's cost and strength. I will pay substantially extra for a product that lets me add something to the world and doesn't make me pollute it. Within the various lead free solder products, it will take a large difference in handling to cover a moderately higher cost. Strength isn't much of a factor unless the solder is mechanically brittle, but since solar cells are so delicate and not subject to stress, this could be the case. I'd need to know the solder is strong enough for a stained glass piece exposed to the elements , which I'm sure is covered in your fact sheet. I'd also have to check how bright it is and the way it takes patina.

I'd really like to know more about this.