The RoHS Directive stands for "the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment". This Directive will ban the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants from 1 July 2006.

Manufacturers will need to understand the requirements of the RoHS Directive to ensure that their products, and their components, comply. At this time you only need to be concerned about this if you are selling products to the European market.

The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) 2002/95/EC was adopted in February 2003 by the European Union. The RoHS directive became effectiv on July 1, 2006, but is not a law; it is simply a directive. This directive restricts the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of various types of electronic and electrical equipment. It is closely linked with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) 2002/96/EC which sets collection, recycling and recovery targets for electrical goods and is part of a legislative initiative to solve the problem of huge amounts of toxic e-waste.

Other legislation similar to RoHS:

China
There is legislation taking effect in China (often referred to as “China RoHS”) that has similar restrictions to the European RoHS directive. At this time the Chinese government is being very vague about the application and responsibility for compliance as well as an effective date.

Japan
Japan does not have any direct legislation dealing with the RoHS substances, but its recycling laws have spurred Japanese manufactures to move to a lead-free process. These companies have also been proactive in phasing out other harmful materials which will, in effect make their products RoHS compliant.

California
California has adopted similar legislation to the EU RoHS directive which will take effect on 1 January 2007. The California law will use the EU RoHS directive as its guide.

Note: These as well as other legislations are broadening the scope of the RoHS directive and appear to be making it a world wide compliance issue.

What is the WEEE directive?

WEEE is the European Community directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment which, together with the RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC, became European Law in February 2003, setting collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types of electrical goods.

What are the 6 banned substances?

- Lead
- Cadmium
- Mercury
- Hexavalent Chromium (Chromium VI)
- Polybrominated biphenyl (PBB)
- Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)

Amounts:
The maximum concentrations are 0.1% (except for Cadmium which is limited to 0.02%) by weight of homogenous material. This means that the limits do not apply to the weight of the finished product, or even to a component, but to any single substance that could (theoretically) be separated mechanically.
Examples: the sheath on a cable or the tin-electroplating coatings on a component lead.

Manufacturers who will be impacted by RoHS:
Manufacturers will need to understand the requirements of the RoHS Directive to ensure that their products, and their components, comply.

The following definitions apply to producers of electrical and electronic equipment under the RoHS Directive:

- Manufacturers and sells electrical and electronic equipment under his own brand.
- Resells under his own brand equipment produced by other suppliers.
- Imports or exports electrical and electronic equipment on a professional basis into a Member State.

Application exemptions:
Below is a summary of the RoHS application exemptions. For more detailed information and recent updates, please visit the European Commission: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/waste/weee_index.htm

- Large-scale stationary industrial tools. Machines or systems, consisting of a combination of equipment, systems, finished products and/or components each of which is designed to be used in industry only, permanently fixed and installed by professionals at a given place in an industrial machinery or in an industrial to perform a specific task.

- Spare parts for the repair, or the reuse, of electrical and electronic equipment put on the market before 1 July 2006 with the purpose of extending its life by updating its functionalities or upgrading its capacity.

- Military equipment like arms, munitions, war material

Additional applications of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, which are exempted from the RoHS Directive requirements include:

- Mercury in compact fluorescent lamps not exceeding 5 mg per lamp.

- Mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for general purposes not exceeding:
- halophosphate 10 mg
- triphosphate with normal lifetime 5 mg
- triphosphate with long lifetime 8 mg

- Mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for special purposes.

- Mercury in other lamps not specifically mentioned in this list.

- Lead in glass of cathode ray tubes, electronic components and fluorescent tubes.

- Lead as an alloying element in steel containing up to 0.35% lead by weight, aluminium containing up to 0.4% lead by weight and as a copper alloy containing up to 4% lead by weight.

- Lead in high melting temperature type solders (i.e. tin-lead solder alloys containing more than 85% lead).

- Lead in solders for servers, storage and storage array systems (exemption granted until 2010).

- Lead in solders for network infrastructure equipment for switching, signalling, and transmission as well as network management for telecommunication.

- Lead in electronic ceramic parts (e.g. piezoelectronic devices).

- Cadmium plating except for applications banned under Directive 91/338/EEC (1) amending Directive 76/769/EEC (2) relating to restrictions on the marketing and use of certain dangerous substances and preparations.

- Hexavalent chromium as an anti-corrosion of the carbon steel cooling system in absorption refrigerators.

Links to additional resource information on RoHS and WEEE: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/waste/weee_index.htm http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/index.htm

http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/pdfs/finalrohs.pdf http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/pdfs/finalweee.pdf
http://www.rohs.gov.uk