WEEE and RoHs Compliance Directive 2002/95/EC

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (EU) has issued directive 2002/95/EC on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment.

It says that Member States shall ensure that, from July 1, 2006, new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market does not contain excessive levels of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).

Maximum concentration levels (MCV) are 0.1% by weight (0.01% for cadmium) in homogeneous materials. A homogeneous material is a single substance. Therefore, components are not homogeneous substances since they are made up of several materials, each with the potential of containing the restricted substances.

To meet this directive, all components within a product must be examined to assess levels of restricted substances.

A second directive, 2002/96/EC, deals with waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). This directive seeks to minimize WEEE disposal and to optimize WEEE reuse, recycling, and other forms of recovery.

Although the above two directives only apply to the European Union, they set a precedent for other countries to follow — and we feel it wise to embrace these standards for all of our products and for all countries to whom we sell.

The two major types of equipment which fall outside the scope of both the WEEE and RoHS Directives are:

a fixed installation - this is defined by the European Commission Frequently Asked Questions document as, a combination of several items of rack equipment, systems, finished products and/or components assembled and/or erected by an assembler/installer at a given place to operate together in an expected environment to perform a specific task, but not intended to be placed onto the market as a single functional or commercial unit.

a large-scale stationary industrial tool/machine – this is a specific exclusion within product category 6 - electrical and electronic tools. It is defined by the European Commission Frequently Asked Questions document as, a machine or system, consisting of a combination of equipment, systems or products, each of which is designed to be used in industry only, permanently fixed and installed by professionals at a given place in an industrial machine or in an industrial building to perform a specific task.

[The WEEE Directive excludes these items because it is not practical to identify a single responsible party for disposal and recycling. The RoHS Directive excludes them on the grounds of consistency with the WEEE Directive.]

In addition to these, equipment described as monitoring and control instruments (such as industrial control panels and remote monitoring systems) and medical devices (including analyzers, radiotherapy equipment & laboratory equipment) are categories defined in the WEEE Directive which are specifically excluded from the RoHS Directive however, the current view is that this will not change until [at least] 2010.)

Finally, equipment used for servers, storage/storage array and telecommunications infrastructure (switching, routers and gateways) is covered by the RoHS Directive but, may use lead in solder (the limits for the other 5 substances must comply). This exemption has been introduced to allow lead in solders for professional, high reliability applications for which viable lead-free alternatives have not been identified. This category is informally referred to RoHS-5. All Transduction computers are RoHS-5 compliant.

In brief, other items outside the scope of the RoHS Directive include:

·         specialized military systems

·         avionics systems

·         equipment for national security

·         equipment built for own use (hobbyist)

·         spares for products placed onto the market before July 1st, 2006

·         equipment for capacity expansion or upgrades on product placed onto the market before July 1st, 2006

Transduction, like many companies, is voluntarily adopting the EU standards. Through our OEM clients we are effectively a global supplier and have global commitments.

Questions regarding a particular product should be directed to the sales department. We will try everything possible to accommodate the needs of our customers.