Six RoHS Exemptions Added

(August 17, 2006) BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union's Technical Adaption Committee (TAC) voted to approve six new RoHS exemptions. Three main requirements must apply for a banned substance to be exempted in an application. These include technical or scientific impracticality of the removal or substitution of the hazardous substance through a change in design; negative environmental, health, and/or consumer safety impacts caused by substitution, which outweigh benefits of hazardous substance removal; feasible substitutes currently do not exist for industrial and/or commercial scale production.

Because of these requirements, the TAC voted in favor of six exemptions Related to lead and cadmium. Lead in finishes of fine pitch components — other than connectors with a pitch of 0.65 mm or less — with NiFe lead-frames, and lead in finishes of fine pitch components — other than connectors with a pitch of 0.65 mm or less — with copper lead-frames will be exempt from RoHS.

Lead and cadmium in printing inks, for the application of enamels on borosilicate glass, will be allowed. Also, lead found in solders used for machined thru-hole discoidal and planar array ceramic multilayer capacitors, and lead oxide in plasma display panels (PDP) and surface conduction electron emitter displays used in structural elements (notably in the front and rear glass dielectric layer, the bus electrode, the black stripe, the address electrode, the barrier ribs, the seal frit, the frit ring, and in print pastes) will qualify for exempt status.

The committee also voted to allow lead oxide in the glass envelope of black light blue (BLB) lamps. Lead alloys solder for transducers (for high-powered loudspeakers designated to operate for several hours at high acoustic power levels) will be exempt. Details were not released as to the specific reasons for each item's transition to exempt status.

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