RoHS Compliance and Leadfree Manufacturing
RoHS Compliance and Leadfree Manufacturing.
We have been lead free capable since 2005 and have both lead free and tin lead manufacturing processes running in parallel throughout the facility. Where customer products are either exempt or have not been designed to the RoHS guidelines we are able to offer considerable support and help.
The current situation.
The ROHS directive required that from July 2006 electrical products do not contain Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Hexavalent Chromium and Polybromide based materials.
We have installed all the items of capital equipment required, have formal processes and completed extensive IPC training with respect to lead free production. We currently produce 4,000 plus RoHS compliant assemblies per month but still have many exempt, legacy and non compliant products in production that will ultimately need to comply or be updated.
Component Manufacturer’s are still migrating to SnAgCu terminations and PCB’s from HASL to a Tin HASL, silver or gold plated finish. This has been the most difficult part of the project and considerable investment and effort has been made to collate and integrate the manufacturer’s component compliance data into our manufacturing system. We are currently able to advise customers of the compliant / non compliant state of individual BOM’s and will support the conversion to RoHS compliance when requested.
We rely on the manufacturer’s declaration of RoHS compliance for the conformity of individual components and sub assemblies. These statements are taken in good faith and form the basis of our declaration of RoHS compliance for populated assemblies.
Useful Links.