Solder wire is a fusible alloy of tin and silver or lead, used for electronics and plumbing. Different alloys are used for different jobs, and some contain a flux core. Lead-free solders are becoming more popular due to health and environmental concerns. Cored solder wire contains internal veins of rosin or acid-based materials, making external flux unnecessary.
Solder wire is a fusible alloy, typically of tin and silver or lead, that has been extruded into an easily manipulated shape. The wire solder shaping allows it to be wound onto a spool for easy storage and uncoiled for use as needed. Some solder wires are a solid alloy, while other varieties feature a flux core. Solder wire can be made from many different compounds, and some alloys are more useful than others for particular jobs. Various alloys of tin and lead have historically been used for applications such as electronics and plumbing, although lead may be replaced by metals such as silver and antimony for health or environmental concerns.
Welding wire types typically differ in their thicknesses and the metals they are made of. Thin wire is typically useful for delicate electronics work, while thicker options can be useful for plumbing work or for soldering wires together. A eutectic mixture of 63% tin and 37% lead was a very popular form of wire solder for working on electronics, as this type of mixture has a discrete melting point rather than a general range. Alloys with higher lead content used to be more popular for applications such as plumbing as they typically solidify more slowly, which can be beneficial when joining pipes.
Due in part to concerns about lead poisoning, a variety of other metals are also used in solder wire. Some governments have enacted laws requiring these lead-free solders, while others provide tax benefits for their use. Some materials that have replaced lead in solder wire include silver, antimony, copper, and zinc.
Any alloy used in solder wire typically melts between 190 and 840 degrees Fahrenheit (90 to 450 Celsius). Solder using metals such as antimony and silver typically have a slightly higher melting point than comparable lead variants. Brass wire composed solely of copper and zinc is typically used in brazing, which is a similar process involving metals with melting points above 840 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius).
Cored solder wire typically contains one or more internal veins of rosin or acid-based materials. This type of flush welding makes the application of external flux during the welding process superfluous. As the solder wire is unwound and heated, the internal flux also melts. This allows the flux to remove any metal oxides on the components being joined. Acid-cored wire is usually used for plumbing applications, while rosin wire is useful in electronics soldering.
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