RoHS
Restriction of use of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive.

afdec runs a major project to examine the best practice for industry in handling the recycling of hazardous substances. The project is headed by Gary Nevison of Premier Farnell. The major project page gives releases from the RoHS team and presentations made by them.

Separate Powerpoint presentations made by external presenters are available here on the website. They are:

1. a presentation given by Matt Townsend. Matthew is part of the Global Environmental Law Group at lawyers Allen & Overy, and he gave a very interesting presentation to the AFDEC RoHS group on the 18th February 2004.

2. a presentation given by Dr. Paul Goodman from ERA on the 18th February 2004. Paul is the Senior Materials Consultant, Reliability and Failure Analysis (RFA) Group. The RFA Group at ERA has been carrying out failure analysis of components and PCBs for over 30 years and has more recently been advising companies on how the WEEE and RoHS directives will affect them and what they need to do to comply. This includes giving specific advice to manufacturers, distributors and users as well as running courses on lead-free soldering and Design for the Environment. ERA have also been helping the DTI with certain aspects of the RoHS directive.

3. a presentation given to the afdec RoHS team on the 21st January 2004 by Steven Street (Senior Materials Engineer) and David Hiscott (product Manager) at UL International. UL are the largest compliance organisation in North America, with clients in over 80 countries.

4. a presentation given to the afdec RoHS team on 21st April 2004 by Andrew Lunnon, Policy Adviser at the Recycling Policy Section of the Department of Trade & Industry 

5. a presentation given to afdec by Bob Willis on 20th April 2004, on the issues surrounding lead-free assembly and soldering. For further information visit Lead Free Soldering

6. a presentation to AFDEC members given on November 4th by Dr Paul Goodman of ERA Technology. ERA Technology are carrying out RoHS projects for both the DTI and European Commission and his Keynote speech to AFDEC members covered the RoHS Directive, exemptions, how to comply and when, and how, to analyse.

7. a presentation given to AFDEC Members by Andrew Lunnon of the DTI on November 4th giving an update on WEEE. Andrew also touched on the Energy Using Products (EuP) Directive.

8. a presentation given by Gary Nevison on 11th January 2005 in Dallas, updating the National Electronic Distributors Association (NEDA) on the status of the RoHS and WEEE legislation in Europe.

9. On the 25th January 2005, Alan Dukinfield, Sales Director at RID UK Ltd, presented to Electronics Yorkshire on the subject of the WEEE Directive. A copy of his presentation is available here

10. On 13th April 2005, consultants Mark Shayler and Leigh Holloway of ECO3 presented to the AFDEC RoHS team on the RoHS and WEEE Directives. Copies of their presentations are available here.

a. From here to Compliance.

b. Lead Free.

c. WEEE and RoHS.

d. Where will you find RoHS

You can visit the DTI's page on Sustainability via this link as a useful source of information.
 

11. Other useful links.

ERA Technology Lead-free & RoHS Directive compliance services

Link to National Weights and Measures the appointed enforcers of UK RoHS Legislation.

12. A sensibly priced RoHS testing service is available from Electronics Yorkshire. Members of Electronics Yorkshire can also benefit from a further 10% discount. Using the Fisherscope XDAL X-Ray Spectrometer the tests are carried out by Electronics Yorkshire staff and include a printed confirmation test report showing the percentage levels of elements found. Please click here for further details.

13. RoHS and WEEE update published by the DTI in November 2005.

As many of you will know, there have been a number of important developments over the past three or four months in relation to the ongoing implementation of the RoHS Directive that have taken place both here in the UK and in Brussels.


Although we have posted all of these developments on the WEEE and RoHS pages of the DTI website as they have occurred, I thought it would be helpful if I issued a brief synopsis outlining what those developments have been: -


The National Weights & Measures Laboratory (NWML), an Executive
Agency of the DTI (Department of Trade & Industry), was appointed
as the UK's RoHS Enforcement Body on 1 July 2005, a year before
the Directive enters into force. NWML's RoHS enforcement website
was launched recently at http://www.rohs.gov.uk. This website contains
full contact details and a FAQs section.


A European Commission Decision (2005/610/EC) establishing the Directive's Maximum Concentration Values (MCVs) was adopted on 18
August 2005 and published 19 August 2005 (Official Journal of the
EU ref L 214, 19.08.2005, p.65).


Following this Decision, the RoHS Directive was transposed into UK
law. UK Regulations (SI 2005 No. 2748) were laid before Parliament on 7 October 2005. A link to the SI can be found in the Latest Information part of the DTI website at:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/index.htm#Latest_Information


Two Commission Decisions extending and amending the list of
exemptions in the Annex to the RoHS Directive have now been
adopted by the Commission. The Decision to exempt Deca BDE in
polymeric applications and lead in lead-bronze bearing shells and
bushes was adopted on 13 October and published in the Official
Journal on 15 October, (OJ L271, 15.10.2005, p.48). The
'so-called' first batch of exemptions was adopted on 21 October
and published in the OJ on 25 October, (OJ L280, 25.10.2005, p.
18). The UK RoHS Regulations (SI 2005 2748) will be amended in due
course to reflect these Commission Decisions and any other
Decisions on exemptions that are still under consideration.


A new draft of the DTI's non binding guidance to the UK RoHS
Regulations was published this week. This can also be downloaded
from our website at:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability/weee/index.htm#Latest_Information


The next meeting of the WEEE/RoHS Technical Adaptation Committee
is expected to take place early in the New Year, although there
has been no official confirmation of this so far.

14. A presentation with FAQ's was given by Gary Nevison of Farnell to over 100 customers, who attended the NEPCON exhibition in May 2007.
Phase One of the "China RoHS" Directive came into force on March 1st 2007. Initially a labelling requirement covering over 1800 Electronic Information Products, this will be followed by Phase Two later in the year when substance restrictions will be announced.