Indium Corporation is partnering with SAFI-Tech, an Iowa-based startup that is creating no-heat and low-heat solder and metallic joining products.
Metallic soldering represents a key manufacturing process across many industries, including aerospace, automotive, and electronics. Current solder products trade off the reliability of joints formed with the very high processing temperatures needed to form those joints—a problem that has limited material selection and product design. SAFI-Tech’s patented supercooling platform removes this tradeoff by creating capsules of molten solder that can remain liquid far below the normal freezing point of metal. Using this platform, industry-standard alloys such as SAC305 can be soldered below LTS temperatures, and other alloys can be soldered as low as ambient temperature.
Indium Corporation and SAFI-Tech will evaluate market applications for supercooled solder materials and explore the development of new products.
Indium Corporation President and COO Ross Berntson said, “We’re always looking for innovative materials solutions that can give our customers ways to overcome current limitations of solder products. SAFI-Tech’s supercooling platform is a unique approach that has the potential to be a solution across a variety of applications.”
Ian Tevis, SAFI-Tech’s President and Co-Founder, said, “Indium Corporation is a world leader and innovator in electronics solder products. Our partnership with Indium will allow customers to explore the unique opportunities possible with our supercooled solder materials.”
Indium Corporation® is a premier materials refiner, smelter, manufacturer, and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, thin-film, and thermal management markets. Products include solders and fluxes; brazes; thermal interface materials; sputtering targets; indium, gallium, germanium, and tin metals and inorganic compounds; and NanoFoil®. Founded in 1934, the company has global technical support and factories located in China, Germany, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
SAFI-Tech is an advanced materials company creating supercooled molten metal products. SAFI-Tech’s supercooled platform was invented by co-founders Dr. Ian Tevis and Dr. Martin Thuo at Iowa State University.
