| The RoHS Directive
was published by the EU in 2002. It bans the
prescence of 6 hazardous substances in electrical
and electronic equipment ‘put on the
market’ after 1 July 2006. Each EU Member
State will have its own individual legislation
to implement the Directive, however, they should
all have the same meaning. In the UK the DTI
is responsible.
The banned substances are lead, mercury,
cadmium, hexavalent chromium and 2 types
of brominated flame retardant. The types
of equipment covered are listed in the legislation
and are generally consumer, office, and light
industrial products. Products designed for
automotive use, for example, are not covered
by RoHS. Every individual item is affected,
not just newly designed product lines.
It is up to equipment producers to make
sure they can demonstrate that their products
are RoHS compliant. In the UK, the National
Weights and Measures Laboratory will be enforcing
the regulations and may ask, for example,
to see records for the past 4 years showing
what has been done by a company to comply.
This might include testing of components
for banned substances.
There are still some issues with RoHS that
are very unclear and deciding whether a product
is affected or not can be difficult; i) there
are many partial exemptions from the ban
either already introduced or expected in
2006 ii) it may be difficult to decide if
a product is covered in the listed categories,
and iii) the definition of ‘put on
the market’ can also be difficult to
interpret particularly if items are going
into warehouses etc.
Soldertec Global (www.lead-free.org) is
a materials research organisation with experience
in all issues surrounding RoHS; regulations,
materials reliability testing and analysis.
Questions and Answers on RoHS compliance
can be found here;
www.tintechnology.com/soldertec/soldertec.aspx?page_id=3089&SelectedMenu_ID=366
For more information feel free to contact
tom.perrett@tintechnology.com +44 (0)1727
871314.
Soldertec, Unit 3 Curo Park, Frogmore, St.
Albans, Herts, AL2 2DD
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