This Wednesday was D-Day for WEEE in France, with the country becoming the latest EU state to implement its strategy for the collection and disposal of electrical and electronic products. [Read more…]

The Chinese Ministry of Information Industry has released three key standards that further define the upcoming China RoHS. Unfortunately they are currently only available in print, in Chinese. Design Chain Associates in San Francisco will soon post translations of the standards in English at its China RoHS site. The European Lead-Free Soldering Netwo... (more) [Read more…]

The newly updated European Union environmental legislation for batteries, Directive 2006/66, which establishes environmental requirements for batteries and accumulators, was published in the EU's Official Journal on September 26, 2006. [Read more…]

Electronics producer compliance scheme REPIC has announced its intention to work with specialised re-use groups when new waste electronics regulations take effect in the UK next year. [Read more…]

Green SupplyLine: What trends have you found during your inspections? Chris Smith, head of the RoHS team for the National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML): Companies are overlooking things. We'll get a product and test it and it will have lead-free solder and the components are good. [Read more…]

ENVIRON has taken part in the recent WEEE, ROHS and Eco-design focussed CARE Innovation Conference and Exhibition in Vienna where it promoted its pan European web based WEEE management system and announced the establishment of a Producer Compliance Scheme for business-to-business WEEE in the UK. [Read more…]

Just when you thought it was safe to call your products RoHS-compliant, a similar-sounding environmental mandate is looming in China that could trip up those who don't stop to consider the differences in the two laws. [Read more…]

The Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering will hold an International Symposium on Tin Whiskers April 25 – 25 at the University of Maryland. [Read more…]

A recent press release from research firm, Gartner Inc., suggests there may be shortages of components during the transition to lead-free inventory. The concern is with the non-compliant parts. As component suppliers produce more RoHS-compliant parts, they will discontinue the production of non-compliant parts. Problem is, those in the defense, aerospace and medical equipment industries depend on those non-compliant parts since they a... (more) [Read more…]

The European Union is considering new exemptions to RoHS. Some industry engineers want solder exempted. Yes, you read that correctly. Solder. John Burke, the maverick engineer who launched the PushBack website, challenges the science in RoHS laws. So he has called for an exemption to solder on the basis that the lead-free alternatives to solder are more dangerous to the environment that the small amount of lead contained in conventional solder. Yo... (more) [Read more…]

IPC and JEDEC are calling for speakers to participate in a global conference dedicated to addressing the issues of reliability and reliability of testing lead-free electronics. The conference will be held April 10 and 11 in Boston. Presentations from environmental managers and technical staff are sought on subjects such as: Design for reliability (alloy selection, PCB FAB specification, moisture sensitivity) Processing (solderability, mixed solder alloy... (more) [Read more…]

The international Electronics Manufacturing Initiative’s (iNEMI) Tin Whisker User Group has released a major update to its publication, “Recommendations on Lead-Fee Finishes for Components Used in High-Reliability Products. The latest version – which is available for download – includes significant changes to some of the group’s pre... (more) [Read more…]

The defense and aerospace industries are faced with the shift to lead-free components even though there are technically exempt from RoHS laws. Problem is, the components industry is converting to lead-free parts and discontinuing their leaded production. For the defense and aerospace industries, this means many of the components they’ve been buying are now lead free. The challenges that come with adopting lead-free components will be addressed at two presentations during the [Read more…]

In PRTM's prior discussions concerning the European Union (EU) WEEE, EU RoHS, and China RoHS, we reiterated the need for Sustainable Environmental Compliance practices to ensure that a company can prepare itself for the coming wave of worldwide environmental regulations. [Read more…]

David Towne, director of engineering technologies and services at Sun Microsystems will speak at a full-day workshop, Efficient and Profitable Paths to Environmental Compliance, which will be presented by Technology Forecasters Inc. (TFI) in conjunction with Goodbye Chain’s Harvey Stone in San Diego on February 1. TFI’s latest benchmarking study reveals that OEMs rate themselve... (more) [Read more…]

The electronics industry has been clamoring for a federal RoHS law for more than a year. With the proliferation of individual state laws that conflict on requirements, the industry wants one law that supercedes state law and makes compliance infinitely easier. More than 50 percent of electronics industry leaders recently polled are in favor of federal legislation. The relief may come from a bill soon to be introduced by Representative Hilda Solis from C... (more) [Read more…]

On Thursday, January 18, the Design Chain Associates of San Francisco will present a live one-hour webinars entitled, “China RoHS: Be Compliant by the March 1 Deadline.” The cost of the webinars is $119, and attendees will receive unlimi... (more) [Read more…]

Now that we’re six months past the RoHS deadline, IPC and Soldertec Global have scheduled a conference to examine compliance questions. The organizations have determined that many companies with high quality electronics products find that transferring to lead-free soldering production is not necessarily a piece of cake. An IPC/Soldertec conference will be he... (more) [Read more…]

The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority has proposed a general ban on mercury in products. The proposal will prohibit mercury in switches and relays, as well as mercury used as chemical analysis, in measuring devices and as dental amalgam. The use of mercury in thermometers has been prohibited in Norway since 1998. There will be time-limited exemptions for some areas of use until December 21, 2010. Regarding amalgam, t... (more) [Read more…]

Solectron, a leading contract manufacturer in the electronics industry, will present a free web-based seminar on the impact of RoHS on medical device manufacturing. The webinar will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 11 a.m. EST, 8 a.m. PST. The program will discuss what medical device companies need to consider in evaluating their position relative to the current European Union’s RoHS directive. The webinar will also cover the implications of the China RoHS mandate. The presenters ... (more) [Read more…]

Intellectual property (IP) protection has been more of a footnote than a hot issue when debating Europe's green laws. But that may be about to change. In the wake of the European Union's environmental laws, third parties are emerging to collect and handle sensitive product information. [Read more…]

Underwriters Laboratories holds RoHS seminar Underwriters Laboratories Inc. will hold a semianr entitled, “Being RoHS Compliant: Using it to Your Advantage,” on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 from 8:30 to 12:00 at the company’s facilities in San Jose, Calif. The cost is $50, payable to the U.S. Department of Commer... (more) [Read more…]

Munich-based EPCOS, an electronic components distributor, has developed an online service to help companies comply with the requirements of the Administration on the Control of Pollution Cause by Electronic Information Products, also knows as China RoHS. The company is offering a downloadable Excel table that indicates which of the six s... (more) [Read more…]

Innov-X Systems has posted an online video demonstration produced to help companies learn about handheld XRF RoHS compliance screening products. The portable, handheld EDXRF is designed to be a non-destructive, low-cost tool to determine whether a product, sub-assembly or component contains hazardous materials banned by the European Union’s RoHS directive. The video ... (more) [Read more…]

John Burke continues to charge furiously at windmills. You have to give the man a mighty nod as he takes on the political correctness wing of state environmentalism. At his site, Pushback, he has harangued about what he considers the bad science behind RoHS. In a recent article he bylined for Circuits Assembly, Burke notes that 284 letters have been sent to the European Union – ... (more) [Read more…]