RoHS, which is the acronym for "Restriction of Hazardous Substances", is a directive from the European Union (EU) that restricts the use of six substances in new electrical and electronic equipment that are placed on the market by July 1, 2006.
The UK Government has officially put back the deadline for compliance to the WEEE (waste) Directive from August this year to January 2006. Regulations governing WEEE, and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive in the UK are now slated for Summer 2005.
Synapsis Technology Inc. announced today that American Power Conversion has selected the EMARS application to support their environmental compliance management and reporting needs. Under the European Union (EU) regulations, companies like American Power Conversion have less than 7 months to begin complying with the WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive and less than 18 months to comply with the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive.
Memsic, Inc., the leading provider of CMOS-based MEMS accelerometers, announced today production availability of the MXC6202 dual accelerometer with an integrated I2C interface. The accelerometer is offered in the RoHS compliant low-profile version of the industry standard LCC-8 package making it the world's smallest accelerometer with integrated I2C interface.
The UK will delay introducing the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive until January 2006, missing the legal deadline of 13 August by five months. The Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) said it had encountered "major practical difficulties" in meeting the deadline, in common with several other major EU countries.
Bivar, Inc., has announced a new line of snap-in and vertical, standard-mount card guides, PCB Ejectors and Handles, all manufactured in compliance with WEEE and RoHS PB Free materials and processes to meet growing global emphasis on environmental responsibility.
A new FREE service has been launched to help businesses co-ordinate both the disposal and acquisition of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) across the UK. Visit WEEE Recycling Directory for the latest information regarding how to comply with the WEEE Directive and to search for a WEEE recycler in your area.
According to the semi-official Industrial Technology Research Institute, the WEEE and RoHS directives could increase costs between 3 percent and 5 percent for branded electrical and electronics product vendors and raise producers' manufacturing costs from 5 percent to 10 percent. A major obstacle, however, is derived from RoHS, as manufactures still have problems in looking for proper and economic alternative substance to replace lead and others that are restricted.
PTC, the Product Development Company(TM), today announced that it will host a series of four webcasts to help customers learn how impending environmental compliance laws will impact engineering and product development. The hour-long webcasts will address the business impact of these regulations, and will include a demo of PTC's Environmental Compliance Solution. Topics include: Understanding the big picture around compliance with regulations such as RoHS, WEEE, and the Japanese Green Procurement Laws; How environmental regulations will impact engineering, procurement, manufacturing and IT; What companies should look for in a compliance solution; How PTC's solutions help companies achieve compliance.
Kester has announced that it will launch its 2005 N.A. lead-free seminar series titled, "Project 2005: Achieving Lead-free RoHS Assembly" in Sunnyvale, CA. This seminar will be held Thursday, April 7, 2005 at the Four Points Sheraton in Sunnyvale, CA, and will be hosted together with KIC and Metcal.
AMR Research warns against thinking compliance with European WEEE regulations and other forms of returns can be managed in the same way. There are some similarities, but the differences are more important. For Australian exporters, the new rules provide some complex challenges.
AVX Corporation (NYSE: AVX) is now offering an ultra-small crystal oscillator designed for telecommunication systems. Designated the CX-2520SB, the surface mount crystal oscillator contains a ceramic package that offers high reliability with repeatable performance in a compact package. The lead-free, RoHS-conforming oscillator has motional series resistances of 100ohm at 26.000-34.999MHz and 50ohm at 35.000-60.000MHz with a load capacitance of 8pF.
More than half the 93 million electrical items thrown away will not be recycled under the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive according to a report from ICER. This is because the items are less than 2kg in size, and householders are likely to throw them away among general household refuse rather than separately in designated WEEE collection facilities. Under the WEEE Directive, recovery and re-use obligations for producers only apply to separately collected WEEE.
Finisar has a complete product portfolio of 4Gbit/s transceivers, including the 4Gbit/s SFP (FTRJ8524P2xNy), which began shipping in July 2004, and the 4G lead-free/RoHS compliant SFP (FTLF8524P2xNy) and 4G lead-free/RoHS compliant SFF (FTLF8524E2xNy), which began shipping in November 2004.
KIC, Kester and Metcal will co-host a seminar, "Project 2005: Achieving Lead-free RoHS Assembly," on Thursday, April 7, 2005, at the Four Points Sheraton in Sunnyvale, CA. The companies' experience in soldering technology (both leaded and lead-free) can help industry companies become compliant with the RoHS directives. Free lunch included.
TDK Corporation announced today that information regarding compliance of the European Union RoHS Directive(1) set to go into effect July 2006 is now available. TDK successfully completed making general-purpose electronic components conform to the Directive in December 2004, along with additional substances independently banned by TDK itself. Starting today, information for these products will be available on TDK's website at www.component.tdk.com.
SigmaTel Inc. is now shipping products fully compliant with the European Union's (EU) Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, the analog player announced this week.
KIC announces that it will co-host a seminar titled, "Project 2005: Achieving Lead-free RoHS Assembly." The seminar will be held Thursday, April 7, 2005, at the Four Points Sheraton in Sunnyvale, CA, and will be hosted together with Kester and Metcal. Continental breakfast, lunch and refreshments will be provided.
No definitive explanation has been given for the whiskering, though it is known to be mitigated by the presence of some lead, gold, antimony or indium. Gold has been cited as the most successful additive besides lead in controlling whiskering, but it adds to the cost of the component and has not been used widely. For the most part, RoHS-compliant components use pure tin. Some in the components industry say that only electroplated tin will grow electrically conductive tin whiskers. Yet many engineers insist that any form of pure tin will grow whiskers.
Charging per BOM line item, RMI's Service analyzes compliance status for each electronic component and provides spreadsheet report along with copies of manufacturers' compliance documentation. Alternative part numbers and/or manufacturers are identified for non-compliant passive components. Customers typically receive results on both paper and CD-ROM within 1 week.
Phoenix Contact will be presenting the topic 'lead free products and lead free production' in the SMART Group seminar programme at the Nepcon Exhibition, Brighton, May 2005. Lead free connection technology has to fulfil the new standards of RoHS and WEEE, and it must perform well in the new processing environment.
Arrow Electronics, Inc. announced that Leonie Tipton, Vice President of Global Supply Chain Programs, Arrow Electronics, will present at Electronics Supply & Manufacturing's NetSeminar, "Developing Solutions for RoHS Compliance," on March 23 2005. Tipton, who leads Arrow's worldwide environmental compliance initiatives, will offer concrete steps companies can take now to become RoHS compliant.
In a letter to MPs, recycling body REPIC is calling on the Government to delay the date on which the UK implements the European WEEE (electronic waste) Directive.
#1 Lead in tin whisker resistant coatings for fine pitch applications,
(including exemption additions currently in a draft stage):
Hewlett-Packard has developed a social and environmental responsibility initiative to address not only RoHS and WEEE, but other supply chain issues such as labor practices among its component suppliers. Glazer, speaking at National Manufacturing Week in Chicago, said HP engaged its suppliers early on regarding hazardous substances. The company had to augment its supply chain management software to handle the additional tracking requirements.
FCI, a leading manufacturer of connectors and interconnect systems, has developed a broad offering of 22-position, vertical backplane receptacle connectors to enable the implementation of the new high-speed, Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive (HDD) interface that is extending the use of low-cost, high-capacity SATA drives to low-end enterprise storage applications in servers and storage systems. SATA vertical backplane receptacle connectors are RoHS-compatible.
This website endeavors to cover all aspects of RoHS and WEEE from a practical implementation perspective from a New Zealand Standpoint. It also attempts to address the imbalance of web based support between the huge amount of resources available for lead-free and the scant resources for Cr6, Cadmium, Mercury and BDE replacements. Project infrastructure, material logistics, legislative interpretations, exemptions are also covered. Last but not least is the email forum where any questions posted are responded to once per week.
To make sense of these implications and to provide some direction to New Zealand electronic companies, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), Electronics South and the Canterbury Electronics group have set up a web-site at www.electronicssouth.com dedicated to RoHS and its sister directive, WEEE.
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. today announced it has established a manufacturing framework to shift screws that include hexavalent chromium used in its mechatronic products to those with trivalent chrome, which are hexavalent chromium-free.
Telesis Technology Corporation (OTC:TLST) today announced that Telesis RF, a division of Telesis Technology Corporation and a leader in the manufacturing of high performance discrete semiconductors has completed a program to comply with ROHS. They are committed to 100% lead-free production.
The RoHS lead-free deadline is only 15 months away. Are you ready? As electronics manufacturers, contract manufacturers and component suppliers move through the conversion to parts that are free of hazardous materials, it’s beginning to dawn on industry executives that the shift to lead-free products carries with it the need to certify the cleanliness of their products. They will need to provide documentation to governments that have passed laws restricting hazardous material content in electronic products.
Research and Markets has released an updated 200-page report that summarizes regulatory developments in electronics takeback around the world. The report covers 23 countries in Europe, Asia, including new details from South Korea and China. The report explains the new European Directives (WEEE and RoHS) clearly, with details on who is affected, and which items have toxic materials restrictions. It also includes collection organization information, and fee structures, and electronics recovery rates when available.
New interchangeable thermistors from ATC Semitec are manufactured using a new ultra-stable manufacturing process and are Pb-free thus meeting the RoHS and WEEE directives.
Phoenix Contact will be presenting the topic 'lead free products and lead free production' in the SM ART Group seminar programme at the Nepcon Exhibition, Brighton, May 2005. Lead free connection technology must fulfill the new standards of RoHS and WEEE, and must perform well in the new processing environment. The solutions and ideas Phoenix Contact offers will be drafted in the lecture with ideas to reduce cost in the overall process.
Germany's parliament has approved the country's new waste electronics regulations, implementing the WEEE Directive and the ROHS Directive. The German government said its WEEE regulations will come into force on March 1 2005, with producers given until November 2005 to register with the Federal Environment Agency (FEA). Producer-funded take back and treatment begins on March 1, 2006, while the requirements of the ROHS regulations come into effect in July 2006.
Exemptions granted to the lead-free Directive (RoHS) are to be re-examined after the European Parliament accused the European Commission of over-stepping its authority when it sanctioned the exemptions last December. The "maximum concentration" paragraph is also under close scrutiny.
Is your supply chain ready for stringent new environmental regulations coming online? "Today lead inventory is not necessarily potential scrap, but as we get closer to the [RoHS] deadline, and as more and more customers convert, non-RoHS compliant inventory, scares me. When you look at the inventories involved in large multinational companies, it's millions of dollars."
Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced it is now shipping fiber optic transceivers that are fully compliant with the European Union's (EU) Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. Agilent's entire portfolio of fiber optic transceivers is expected to be fully compliant with the RoHS directive by October 2005, well in advance of the July 2006 deadline.
The SMTA announces plans for the 2005 SMTA Boston event, May 3-5 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (Boston, MA), in conjunction with NEPCON East / Electro. The program will feature full- and half-day courses, a new mini-conference on Complying with RoHS, and a keynote address, as well as co-located certification programs for SMT Processes and Six Sigma Green Belt. Course topics include the following:
The EU RoHS directive, also know as the "lead-free" directive, identifies six materials that must be virtually eliminated from electronic equipment before it's shipped into the EU after July 1, 2006. The materials include lead (Pb), hexavalent chromium (chromium IV), cadmium, mercury, polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). These may be contained in semiconductors, package lead finishes, cables, switches, relays, plastic housings, CRTs, hardware (screws, nuts), lamps, PCBs, and more.
Soldertec Global is offering the electronics industry a screening service for components, boards, cables, screws, housings and electronic assemblies to help them comply with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. The equipment will add to the capabilities of Soldertec Global, which provides a full range of technical, marketing, and information services to the global electronics sector.
The biggest headache for companies which make products comes from purging banned substances from circuit boards - by finding components which do not include the banned substances and also going over to lead-free processing. Plastics can be particularly difficult as the dyes and fillers used can contain banned substances, and plastics suppliers are a long way up the supply chain from RoHS and in some cases fail to see the need to respond.
Fujitsu's new MHV2120AT hard disk drive, the industry's first 120GB mobile hard disk drive provides unmatched storage capacity with low power consumption, exceptional durability, low acoustic noise, and complies with the EU's RoHS directive.
If your company is one of the many with an option for temporary exemption from RoHS, such as network infrastructure companies, choosing the exemption route is far more complicated than some may think. In fact, the decision to delay the commencement of your organization's compliance program can be more risky than taking RoHS head on, for a number of reasons.
There are currently more than 22 applications for RoHS exemption currently being considered. Current exemptions to RoHS:
Executives seeking a prudent business strategy should think about designing out at-risk materials like lead, through both dematerialization and material substitution strategies.
Tin whiskers are behind the exemption applications from HP and Sony. The companies claim that the tin whiskers will compromise reliability. HP is pushing for a composition of 15% lead mixed with tin.
The family of new self-retaining LED mounts from Bivar is designed to answer an increasing sensitivity to process capable components for lead-free (Pb free) and RoHS compliant electronic products. The SRM series is priced from US$0.02 each in production quantities.
The ARL Quant'X provides the highest performance-price ratio of all other energy dispersive XRF (EDXRF) instruments on the market and ensures unmatched sensitivity and indispensable flexibility to satisfy, for example, RoHS and WEEE regulations, claims Thermo Electron.