WHAT EXACTLY IS THE NEW LEGISLATION?

The European Union countries (EU) issued in 2003 a “Directive on the Restriction of Use of Certain Hazardous Substances” (ROHS) which takes effect on July 1, 2006. The ROHS Directive restricts the use of lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB’s) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE’s) to a maximum concentration value of 0.1% by weight and 0.01% for cadmium.

The ROHS Directive covers electrical and electronic equipment such as printed circuit boards, power supplies, motors and drives, electronic components, displays, switches, sockets and connectors.
The following products are exempt from the requirements:

• Lead in solders for servers, storage and storage array systems.
  
• Lead in solders for network infrastructure equipment, critical life support
  medical and monitoring equipment, aerospace and military products.

ROHS Legislation aims to reduce environment impacts of waste and improve recyclability.

In January 2003 the EU Council also adopted the “Directive of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” (WEEE). This directive requires producers of electrical and electronic equipment to finance the collection and disposal of their products at the end-of-life. WEEE has specific target dates for recycling and recovery, with the first target being August 13, 2005.

WEEE Legislation aims to conserve landfills and boost recycling.

HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOU AND YOUR CUSTOMERS?

If you or your customers sell or ship any of the covered electronic components, sub-assemblies or finished products directly to any of the European Union countries it will be you or their responsibility to ensure that compliance is met for all covered products made for or shipped into the EU market. Also, if you supply components (i.e. circuit assemblies) or equipment to a U.S. OEM selling into the EU market, you will be required by those OEM customers to prove your ROHS compliance or you risk being removed from their supplier lists.

PLANNING for IMPLEMENTATION – ACTIONS THAT YOU NEED TO TAKE

Bill of Materials: You will need to change / convert all parts and part numbers for components to new part numbers that are free of lead, cadmium, PBB’s, etc. This includes bare PCB’s, all components and sub-assemblies.

Equipment Change Considerations: The wave solder machine will need a new or re-coated solder pot. The lead-free alloys corrode the solder pot and pump housings. You will need a new specially coated solder pot to prevent this.

You may also need a longer SMT reflow oven or one with more heated zones. The lead-free solder paste has a peak reflow temperature of 240C, compared to the 215C peak temperature used with processing 63/37. An 8 – 12 zone oven is usually the minimum size required for good results on multi-layer PCB’s.

Process Changes: Wetting (solder flow) times will decrease, solder joints may appear grainier and more dull, requiring re-training of hand-soldering operators. New SMT reflow profiles will be needed, as will wave solder machine settings.

Lead-Free Validation Kit: We recommend building sample / test Lead-Free PCB assemblies using dummy components, dummy boards and Pb-Free paste, wire and stencils. These materials are available from us in a kit. This will give your staff and line workers some advance practice with the new materials. We also offer from Cookson Electronics Analytical Labs – Test Levels 1 – 2 – 3 of your assembled “dummy” boards. The testing provides non-destructive inspection, photo-microscopic cross-sectioning and certification of your Pb-Free process. CALL US FOR PRICING ON THESE SERVICES.

Click here for a list of our
LEAD-FREE ELECTRONIC SOLDER PRODUCTS