Electronic Engineering News Digest Electronic Engineering News Digest
Electronic Engineering News COMPONENT NEWS | INDUSTRY NEWS | RoHS/WEEE NEWS |   
Latest News

iNEMI forms HFR-Free Leadership Program - The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) has launched a HFR (halogenated flame retardant)-Free Leadership Program.

Green Manufacturing Expo – Chicago in September - The Green Manufacturing Expo will be held on September 22-24 in Rosemont, Ill. The expo was created to provide a wide spectrum of economically sound solutions for the manufacturing enterprise interested in improving process efficiency, reducing costs, and conserving energy and resources.

Voids found in lead-free solder joints - According to an article in Electronics Weekly, a UK-based sister publication of Design News, a researcher at the UK’s University of Leicester has discovered detrimental voids in lead-free solder joints.

GreenSoft launches GreenData Manager - REACH workgroup - The workgroup edition was created to offer a complete compliance data management system for RoHS, REACH and REACH SVHC (substances of very high concern). The workgroup product was designed for multiple users nad tailored to medium-to-large enterprises.

An argument for leaded solder in servers - Here’s a pretty good argument for leaded solder. In a blog on ServerWatch, technology writer, Drew Robb, argues the merits of using leaded solder. Much of the electronics industry agrees, but the reality is lead-free has become the forced norm for most electronic products.

REACH hits the EU this month - As of June 1, 2009, all European Union suppliers are required to comply with a raft of substance restrictions under the REACH regulation.

House considers RoHS-like bill - The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a RoHS-like bill that would become part of the Toxic Substances Control Act. The Environmental Design of Electrical Equipment is more limited than RoHS, according to Gary Nevison of Farnell, a London-based components distributor.

Lasky: Lead-free is plenty reliable -   With more than two years into the lead-free conversion, it’s become clear lead-free components are reliable. According to Dr. Ronald Lasky, senior technologist with Indium and a professor at Dartmouth University says the surprise of RoHS is that reliability has not been an issue.

Tin, silver, copper becomes standard for RoHS solder - According to an article by Mitch Holtzer of Cookson Electronics that appeared in SMT Online, tin/silver/copper (SAC) alloys have become the industry standard lead-free solders since RoHS went into effect.

How will RoHS changes affect medical equipment? - New RoHS changes will impact medical devices. Many of the exemptions that kept RoHS from restricting medical devices will be lifted. Fred Loneker, a senior manager with Environ International Corp.

Engineers need to track RoHS changes - The European Commission is about to drop six exemptions from the RoHS directive. While a move of this order was expected, it still shows that design engineers need to be cognizant of changes in environmental regulations.  the components they chose yesterday may not be compliant today.

Six RoHS exemptions cut - In the latest round of RoHS changes, six exemptions will be retired from the directive’s list of 29 exemptions. In an article in EDN, a Design News sister site, Gary Nevison of Newark and Farnell explains which six exemptions will expire over the next two years.

The impact of environmental regulations on electronics manufacturers - Here’s an in-depth paper that covers the Impact of Environmental Regulations on Electronic Manufacturers. Michael Kirschner, president of Design Chain Associates, a firm the helps companies comply with regulations, authored the paper for the December 2008 Conference on Resource Recycling.

SaaS eco-software for REACH and RoHS - Green EcoSystems Group of Colorado Springs, Colo. has introduced Green -EcoSystems software-as-a-service designed to help manufacturing companies address requirements related to the REACH directive. The tool also supports RoHS compliance.

Selecting the right lead-free connector design - RoHS laws have affected manufacturing processes as well as changing the nature of electronic components. The article, “Designing for RoHS: Select the right lead-free-connector design for heat-sensitive applications,” explores the RoHS-compliant alternatives for design engineers.

News ArchiveElectronic News Digest RSS Feed
Add to My Yahoo! Add to Google Add to del.icio.us Add to Blinklist Add to Shadows

Sims reveals WEEE plastics plan after latest acquisition

21.10.2006 03:30 - Source: WEEE Directory

Sims Recycling Solutions will soon have an outlet for plastic derived from waste electronic equipment, following the acquisition of German recycling specialist M+R.

The acquisition of M+R - Metal and Recycling – for the equivalent of just over ?20 million, gives Sims a ?2 million processing plant in Bergkamen, which recycles 100,000 tonnes of metallic and non-metallic materials each year.

The plant already has waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling capabilities, but one of the new owners' initial plans is to develop plastic recycling technology at the site.

This would allow the plant to deal with materials from waste electronics collected across Europe.

Graham Davy, managing director for Sims in Europe and North America, said: "Our immediate post-deal objective is to combine our technical talent and process knowledge to install a pioneering plastics separation plant at the Bergkamen site to deliver further value added for our businesses in Europe.

"This will mean plastic derived from electronics recycled by Sims will not have to be sent to traditional plastic recycling havens," Mr Davy added.

Europe
The company told letsrecycle.com that the new plant would allow Sims to recycle plastics within Europe, rather than sending it further afield to places like China.

A spokesman for the company suggested once there was enough demand in the UK, Sims could bring the plastics recycling technology to this country. At this point in time, the company said it was more cost effective to send plastics from WEEE collected in the UK to Germany to be processed.

Mr Davy also hailed the acquisition as his company's first step into Europe's largest waste electronics recycling market. While the UK will bring new WEEE recycling regulations into force early next year, Germany began its new producer responsibility scheme – under Europe's WEEE Directive, earlier this year (see letsrecycle.com story).

He said: "We are delighted to welcome M+R into our business. We have good opportunities to realise procurement, technical, marketing and process synergies. We have of course made our first step into Europe’s largest market and the management team is studying further opportunities to grow our presence in Europe.

"M+R enjoys an excellent infrastructure and in common with SRS, has an innovative approach to deliver environmentally led recycling solutions," he added.

Original text is here