Electrical code Compliance - ROHS Misconceptions and lack of Implementation

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ROHS Misconceptions and lack of Implementation

dolbowent

2006-08-23, 5:25 pm

As of July 1, 2006, anyone selling electronics equipment into Europe
must comply with the European Union's Restriction on Hazardous
Substances (RoHS) directive. From commercial electronics manufacturers
to medical, military, and industrial electronics manufacturing,
everyone will be affected.

Due to this environmentally driven directive, supply lines are
switching over to ROHS. New ROHS legislation is being drawn up for
acceptance into the US, which will impact US manufacturers on a major
scale. Whether your company is exempt or non-exempt from this new
legislation, your products will be impacted from a reliability
standpoint.

Part of the ROHS directive states that there will be six hazardous
substances that will need to be removed from ROHS compliant components.
The six substances will impact how you will choose the components to be
specified into your overall product's process engineering scheme. A
common misconception is that these parts as far as exempt company is
concerned, are easily placed into a leaded process. The other
misconception is that it is easy to switch over your product to full
ROHS compliance just by choosing ROHS compliant products through a BOM
conversion service or letting a parts vendor do it from a BOM pick
list. The number one misconception is that there will be no
enforcement of these new laws therefore you need do nothing about it.

As word of ROHS spreads, many companies will take action. The majority
of these companies will give an engineer or a technician the task of
collecting information on ROHS. Some companies form entire teams to
address ROHS where each individual collects data and presents it to the
team. Some will argue about whether or not their company is exempt.
Some will present documents from vendors explaining ROHS. Some will
even come up with strategies that may or may not work for ROHS. Alas,
many never reach the final step that is implementation. Now that you
have this mountain of paperwork and information what do you do with it?
How do you implement it into your present business structure?

Michael Dolbow, CEO of Green Planet Solutions, Inc. was in the same
situation. He was seeing more requests for ROHS information, however
once the information was received, the requestor would become confused
when it came to utilizing the information. More and more of his
colleagues were asking him how the processes surrounding ROHS worked,
how to handle the components, what they needed to do to prepare their
stockrooms and assembly lines? How should they operate within ROHS with
regard to their RMA areas? It was a mess. Everyone was working hard at
collecting information, but however nothing was getting done while the
clock was ticking.

Seeing this, Michael and his partner John Hubble created Green Planet
Solutions, Inc. With years of experience in process engineering,
manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering and a wide variety of
electronics manufacturing experience the partners began offering
services on ROHS implementation. After seeing all of the seminars,
informational websites, watching the thousands of consultants offering
ROHS information, Green Planet Solutions thought it was time to help
companies implement all of this information.

The service offers a comprehensive view of ROHS implementation
beginning with an audit of the client's facility over approximately 4
to 5 days. During the audit Green Planet Solutions looks at the
internal business structures, i.e., Purchasing, Warehouse, Stockroom,
Manufacturing, Assembly, and Engineering Department. In depth research
is done on the products and or product lines and implementation is
incorporated companywide.

Green Planet Solutions looks at the end use of the product in order to
determine the materials that will be used in crossing over from
non-compliant materials to ROHS compliant materials. They take into
consideration the overall process to ensure that product reliability
does not change due to ROHS implementation. One of the problems with
BOM scrubbing services is they only give you component crossover
information however they don't consider your total process or
product's end use. This can greatly affect the reliability of the
product.

After assessing the complete audit of a company, Green Planet Solutions
helps the client come up with an implementation plan can be followed in
order to become ROHS compliant. Not only will the product be ROHS
compliant, however the entire company structure as well. Unlike the
"snake oil salesmen" that have sprung up to just give seminars on
ROHS information (most of which is readily accessible on the Internet
to anyone), Green Planet Solutions offers a complete solution to any
ROHS situation.

In order to ensure product reliability and compliance under the ROHS
directives, an ROHS strategy must be implemented. It is no longer a
question of "if", however "when" any given company will
implement a structure that can produce a reliable ROHS compliant
product. It can be a hard road to follow and we know that Green Planet
Solutions can make it an easier one.

For more information contact:

Micheal Dolbow
Office: (760) 727-2715
www.atotalgps.com

Jon@underthewagon.org

2006-08-24, 1:25 pm

On 23 Aug 2006 13:50:29 -0700, "dolbowent" <dolbowent@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
>As of July 1, 2006, anyone selling electronics equipment into Europe
>must comply with the European Union's Restriction on Hazardous
>Substances (RoHS) directive. From commercial electronics manufacturers
>to medical, military, and industrial electronics manufacturing,
>everyone will be affected.
>
<Much Spammo snipped>

Actually, the RHOS Directive doesn't affect military product - at
least in the UK. Dual Use stuff, yes.

Regards
JonH

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