RoHS war stories
RoHS war stories
by Bev Christian, Research In Motion, and Michael Fry, Intertek Ageus Solutions, Ontario, Canada
This article is a series of “from
the trenches” stories taken
both from the perspective of an
electronics manufacturer and
an environmental compliance
consultancy. The accounts
below provide a library of RoHS
compliance scenarios that il-
lustrate the extremes of building
an RoHS compliant product
and the pitfalls of assuming that
a declaration of compliance is
ironclad.
Unlike most papers, portions
of this one are written in first
person. In order to preserve both
the confidentiality of our sources
and the integrity of this paper,
all external stories provided to
us have been copied into the
paper and kept anonymous.
This allows for a non-biased and
often humorous accounting of
RoHS.
introduction
teners, Plastics, Hardware etc.)
Keywords: RoHS, Lead-Free,
Companies that are in the throes of testing
4. Exempt from certain or all aspects
Compliance, XRF
for RoHS
1
compliance are having some
of EU RoHS and are trying to keep
major headaches. Since its implementation
lead free and pure tin solders out
in 2006, the EU environmental directive
of their process (Medical Devices,
2002/95/EC (RoHS) has had manufactur-
Telecomm Industry)
ers grappling with the management of re-
5. In scope of EU RoHS, with no
stricted substances in their products. While
intention of selling into the EU
RoHS impacts almost every electronics
(or China or South Korea for that
manufacturer and most areas of the supply
matter) but are opting to achieve
chain, there are several different classifica-
some levels of compliance for
tion scenarios under which companies can
their environmental due diligence
be placed:
(Above examples from 1-4 but not
1. In scope of EU RoHS and are
sold into EU)
actively restricting the hazardous
While supply chain management and
substances contained in their
declarations of conformity (DOC) play a
products (PCs, Cell Phones, Video
large part of a company’s RoHS compli-
Game Consoles, etc.)
ance program, testing has also become an
2. Out of scope from EU RoHS and
essential aspect of RoHS accepted due dili-
are not concerned with restricting
gence. Test methods range from portable
substances in their processes (In-
x-ray fluorescence to inductively coupled
dustrial Equipment, Military, etc.)
plasma (ICP) and beyond. Testing is a very
3. Out of scope from EU RoHS but
This paper was originally presented at the
time consuming and costly undertaking,
are forced to become compliant
IPC APEX Expo, March 31-April 2, 2009, in
whether it is done in-house or is subcon-
through supply chain pressure (Fas-
Las Vegas, Nevada.
tracted to a third party laboratory. This pa-
10 – Global SMT & Packaging – June 2009
www.globalsmt.net
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