RoHS / WEEE
In the past years the European Community has announced several regulations regarding hazardous substances. Under RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC the EC regulated certain substances in electrical and electronic equipment. This regulation was enforced on the 1st July 2005. By this date producers face new requirements if they want to sell in the European market. Manufactures have to ensure that their products (and also components of these products) comply with this regulation. Manufactures may not introduce new E&E equipment containing named substances in exceeding amounts in the EU. Producers must be able to demonstrate the compliance to the RoHS directive.
The products affected cover a wide range including household appliances, IT and telecommunications equipment, consumer equipment, lighting equipment, electrical and electronic tools, toys, leisure and sports equipment and automatic dispensers. A detailed list of affected products is given in the directive 2002/96/EC Annex IA & IB.
The substances highlighted include lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium and flame retardants polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE). The legal limits for lead, mercury, chromium VI and PBB/PBDE are 0,1% for each and 0,01% for Cadmium. A few exemptions are made for “unavoidable due to technical reasons” (e.g. Mercury in fluorescent lamps, Lead in glass).
The incidence of these substances in so many products highlights the importance of the RoHS directive: Lead is used in soldering, glass for cathode ray tubes and light bulbs. Mercury is used in thermostats, sensors, relays in switches, and discharge lamps. Cadmium is used for switches, springs, connectors, housings, and printed circuit boards, plastics, and Ni/CD-batteries. Hexavalent Chromium is used in metal coating for corrosion protection and wear resistance. PBB, PBDE are flame retardants present in printed circuit boards, connectors, and plastic covers.
The WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC (Directive on waste of electrical and electronic equipment) has been adopted by the European Union in January 2003.
It aims to minimise the environmental impact of the disposal of waste electrical equipment by making manufactures, resellers and importers responsible for collection, reuse, recycling and recovery of such waste. The waste equipment is separated according different categories and for each of it, reuse/recycling and recovery targets are defined.
1. Large household appliances
2. Small household appliances
3. IT and telecommunications equipment
4. Consumer equipment
5. Lighting equipment
6. Electrical and electronic tools
7. Toys, leisure and sports equipment
8. Medical devices (with the exception of all implanted and infected products)
9. Monitoring and control instruments
10. Automatic dispensers
BZT reports provide you with the recycling potential of your product according to the knowledge of best available recycling technologies, and provide information for recycling facilities to remove the materials and components which are listed in the Annex II of the WEEE Directive.
TCP offer RoHS / WEEE Service for:
- Lead...Test
- Mercury...Test
- Cadmium...Test
- Hexavalent chromium...Test
- Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)...Test
- Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)...Test
- Wet Chemical Analysis (Verification Method)
- Non-Destructive Analysis
- XRF Screening
- WD-XRF
- Quantum X-ray
- Scanning election Microscope (SEM-EDX)
- XRF Mapping
Detailed information will provided by our RoHS expert team ... contact.
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