In the manufacture of products such as printed wiring boards or chip scale packaging and ball grid arrays, incorporating one or more elements selected from among Ni, Co, Cr, Mn, Zr, Fe and Si into a lead-free soldering process to reduce joint embrittlement. In varied embodiments this is accomplished by spraying onto a solder sphere or preform surface, by spraying onto a device substrate surface, or by incorporating into the device substrate alloy.