RoHS is a compliance system. It is used by most of the globalbusiness establishments. They started using it a long time before the “European Directive 2002/95/EC” came into being. This particular directive was published in January 2003. However, it is only recently that a number of small and medium companies have started to use it as well. It goes without saying that they have been facing a lot of issues in this regard too. This is because a lot of work has to be done in order to make sure that you are following the rules and regulations that have been mentioned in RoHS.
What are the key challenges in this regard?
The biggest challenges that companies are facing in this regard are practical in nature. They may also be enumerated as below:
- product conversion
- assembly process conversion
- due diligence documentation
- product and supply chain auditing
- product reliability
A lot of conferences and workshops have been organized in this regard. Their main aim was to come up with a general outline of the work that has to be done in this particular context. This was done so that products could be in better compliance with the directive.
Challenges related to product conversion
This is one of the biggest RoHS compliance challenges. If you want to be compliant with this directive you have to face a number of product design and management challenges as well. If you are not completely compliant with it, it means that your product is an obsolete one. There are 6 elements that are mentioned in RoHS in this regard. You have to either follow them. You also have exemptions that are granted in this case from time to time. You can use them as well if you want to or have to.
Challenges related to assembly process conversion
Most of the basic assembly process that you need to come up with assemblies that are RoHS compliant are already out there. You can find them in reports such as IPC (Institute for Printed Circuits) or JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) lead free conferences. This is the fortunate thing about this particular situation. In spite of this there are some decisions that companies have to make in this regard. This depends on the requirements of the products that they are making in this regard. An example of such decisions would be using the alloy that you need for mechanical and temperature related reasons.
Conclusion
In most cases the compliance directives of RoHS are in favor of collection, storage, and evaluation of a lot of due diligence documentation. This is in relation to the component suppliers that you work with. This documentation should normally contain a Certificate of Conformance to the RoHS directive. You need a Materials Declaration as well. This particular declaration would list the percentage composition of a product. This information would have to be provided on a layer by layer basis. All the substances that are mentioned in the component have to be enumerated as well. You need to provide data from tests done in chemical labs as well.
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