Many of Telios Tech customers have relied upon Telios Tech’s advanced expertise in converting, and if necessary, reengineering products to include RoHS compliant components. All manufacturers of electronic and electrical equipment sold in Europe must comply with the European Union’s (EU’s) Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive mandating the reduction of six hazardous substances as of July 2006. The immediate repercussions of non- compliance include serious fines and damaged brand reputation.

Services include:

• BOM Evaluation - To determine RoHS Compliance
• Conversion to RoHS compliant components (Sampling of RoHS components, data sheets, and Compliance Certification Certificates)
• Engineering assistance for the selection of compliant products
  Package labeling for notification of compliant and non compliant product
• BOM Expenditure and lead-time analysis to maintain production during conversion
• Liaison between Manufacturer and OEM to keep RoHS information flowing

WHAT IS ROHS?

The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) 2002/95/EC was adopted in February 2003 by the European Union. The RoHS directive took effect 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. In casual conversation, it is often pronounced "ROHS", "Rosh", or "Row Haws", except in Europe, where it is pronounced "Rose".

RoHS is often referred to as the "lead-free" directive, but it restricts the use of the following 6 substances:

• Lead
• Mercury
• Cadmium
• Hexavalent chromium (Chromium VI or Cr6+)
• Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
• PBDE (polybrominated diphenyl ether)
• PBB and PBDE are flame retardants used in some plastics.

The maximum concentrations are 0.1% or 1000ppm (except for Cadmium which is limited to 0.01% or 100ppm) by weight of homogeneous 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 — for example, the sheath on a cable or the tinning on a component lead.

For example, a radio is comprised of a case, screws, washers, a circuit board, speakers etc. A circuit board is comprised of a bare PCB, ICs, resistors, switches etc. A switch is comprised of a case, a lever, a spring, contacts, pins etc. The contact might be comprised of a copper strip with a surface coating.

Everything that can be identified as a homogeneous material must meet the limit. So if it turned out that the case was made of plastic with 2300 ppm (0.23%) PBB used as a flame retardant, then the entire radio would fail the requirements of the directive.

Note that batteries are not included within the scope of RoHS, therefore NiCd, Lead-acid and Mercury batteries are permitted despite the use of restricted substances.

The directive applies to equipment as defined by a section of the WEEE directive. These are:

• Large and small household appliances
• IT equipment
• Telecommunications equipment (although infrastructure equipment is exempt in some countries)
• Consumer equipment
• Lighting equipment — including light bulbs
• Electronic and electrical tools
• Toys, leisure and sports equipment
• Automatic dispensers

This does not apply to fixed industrial plant and tools. Compliance is the responsibility of the company which puts the product on the market, as defined in the Directive; components and sub-assemblies are not responsible for product compliance. Of course, given the fact that the regulation is applied at the homogeneous material level, data on substance concentrations need to be transferred through the supply chain to the final producer. An IPC standard has recently been developed and published to facilitate this data exchange, IPC-1752 http://www.ipc.org/ipc-175x. It is enabled through two Adobe forms which are free to use.

RoHS applies to these products in the EU whether made within the EU or imported. Certain exemptions apply, and these are updated on occasion by the EU.