Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) CERTIFICATION

Manufacturers, retailers and suppliers of electrical and electronic products must comply with different regulations about the Restriction of Hazardous Substances relevant to their end market

What is RoHS?

The EU, RoHS directive 2002/95/EC restricts the use of lead and other potentially hazardous substances including cadmium, mercury and chromium VI, amongst others, in electrical and electronic products. RoHS limits these substances to 0.1% or 1,000ppm (except for cadmium, which is limited to 0.01% or 100ppm) by weight of homogenous material.

The EU RoHS directive is closely linked to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) 2002/96/EC which sets collection, recycling and recovery targets for electrical goods.

Similar regulations exist in other areas of the world including China, Japan, South Korea, USA, Norway and Turkey. Our chemical experts help you mitigate the risk of non-compliance to global and national restricted substances regulations.

marketRoHS specifies maximum levels for the following six restricted materials:

• Lead (Pb): < 1000 ppm
• Mercury (Hg): < 100 ppm
• Cadmium (Cd): < 100 ppm
• Hexavalent Chromium: (Cr VI) < 1000 ppm
• Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE): < 1000 ppm
• Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB): < 1000 ppm

Compliance Assurance System

Restricted Substance Controls (RSC) defines the actions and mechanisms you can take to prevent restricted substances from inclusion in your products. To ensure RSC are effective, the procedures should be integrated into an overall Compliance Assurance System (CAS).

EU Enforcement authorities and OEM customers are requesting documentation of producer’s RoHS compliance procedures to demonstrate that appropriate systems are in place to ensure on-going compliance.

Compliance procedures should be integrated into your quality management system or environmental management system if one exists.

RoHS Certifiation helps you in developing your ‘Compliance Assurance System’

Examples of product components containing restricted substances

RoHS restricted substances have been used in a broad array of consumer electronics products. Examples of leaded components include:

• paints and pigments
• PVC (vinyl) cables as a stabilizer (e.g., power cords, USB cables)
• solders
• printed circuit board finishes, leads, internal and external interconnects
• glass in television and photographic products (e.g., CRT television screens and camera lenses)
• metal parts
• lamps and bulbs
• batteries

Cadmium is found in many of the above components, examples include plastic pigmentation, nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries and CdS photocells (used in night lights). Mercury is used in lighting applications and automotive switches, examples include fluorescent lamps (used in laptops for backlighting) and mercury tilt switches (these are rarely used nowadays). Hexavalent chromium is used for metal finishes to prevent corrosion. Polybrominated biphenyls and diphenyl Ethers/Oxides are used primarily as flame retardants.