EU lead-free directive

As long as you have a RoHS statement from the manufacturer, there is no way you as an engineer can be held culpable if the mfr doesn't fully comply.

Hi,

This comes in mid-2006 and AIUI requires that lead content is below

Surely, one could achieve this by making the overall product heavier?

Or does it work on a per-circuit-board basis? In that case, the lead in standard solder will probably weigh more than 0.1% of the weight of the populated PCB....

This could be a serious problem for any company that is slowly running down a stock of old chips. These won't be lead-free, and neither will be any chips purchased from the many used chip vendors who pass on surplus stock. I expect a lot of their business will dry up since many companies are requiring *zero* lead content on *all* components.

Any views?

Oh so management will take the blame.... I don't think so.

Anyway it's certainly a big change in components and change in process that will take a relative long time to iorn out.

gm

AFAIUI, automotive lead-acid batteries are 96%+ domestically recycled here (under stringent environmental controls).

I suspect the numbers are far less for SLA batteries used in alarm systems toy cars and scooters etc.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Speaking of who gets blamed, I once insisted on working a contract type job as an employee. It was medical equipment. Anybody sues us, they can't sue an employee, as they could a subcontractor.

And probaly higher for industrial EVs

Robert

LOL,

we could use all that spare depleted uranium that's hanging around

martin

I heard that too, that you can pass the limits by delivering the electronics on top of a 5 pound solid steel slab. That is almost infinitely silly.

Since the leaded cases can easily be combined with the rest of the leadfree technology, eg leadfree pcb, leadfree solder, ... I'd just use up the stock and just don't tell anyone.

Rene

What does this mean?

Only if you are an officer of the company and are a "PE" or similar with sign-off responsibility.

On this side of the pond, they must first prove criminal negligence, otherwise it's simply a financial responsibility of the company.

...Jim Thompson

I am reminded of a mass-produced packaged "lunch" sold by a well-known American company that consists of crackers, lunch meat (e.g., cold ham, turkey, or sausage), cheese slices, a small candy bar, and a container of fruit juice. Because of the labeling laws in the U.S., the weight of the juice was included in the weight of the product, and the weight of "fat" as a proportion of the total weight of the product was below a specified threshold, so it could be sold as "low fat."

Regards,

-=Dave

Neeerp! An officer cannot be sued _personally_, corporate shield and all that... unless the criminal negligence condition can be proved. A PE with signing authority can... that's part of the "responsibility" section of the law.

...Jim Thompson

In this case, I was hired as an electronics engineer. The guy I worked for had a PHD in biomedical engineering (or some such thing). Therefor, I was not the 'medical' professional on the project.

Peter schrieb:

It works on a per-material basis.

Yes, it is a problem, and it has already been discussed here and elsewhere.

Rene Tschaggelar schrieb:

You're wrong, it works vice versa: you can easily use lead-free parts in a lead-containing process (except for BGAs, and unless the higher soldering temperature won't damage the older parts that were built for lower temperatures). Once you have switched to leadfree solder in the wave soldering machine, any lead-containing part (especially PCBs with HAL) will contaminate the solder. Of course you need /many/ parts before the solder reaches 0.1% lead...

(SMT/Reflow is much simpler in this concern, as the solder does not touch anything else.)

Thank you for the explanation. This in effect means that chips (SMT ot PTH) with leaded solder on their legs cannot be used.

There will be a LOT of stock being scrapped. Smaller companies will just lie :) Remove the datecodes on any such chips of course, as anything dated before about 2004 isn't likely to be ROHS compliant.

A really stupid regulation, given the huge amount of lead used in car batteries for example....

The Tech. )-:<

Thanks, Rich

Peter schrieb:

Each material must be RoHS conform, for example contain less than 0.1% lead (similar tresholds exist for the other "evil" substances).

As an example, often an IC is used: it consists of a) the die itself b) the leadframe c) the expoxy encasing d) the surface finish of the leads.

Another example is a simple cable, where the metal wire is defined as a single material and the plastic insulation as another material, and both must conform to the RoHS limits.

For assembled boards, this extents to the PCB base material, its surface finish (HAL) where it persists after soldering, the solder, and all parts (for those see above).

finish

Probably because they're bureaucrats, i.e., have no concept of the way real reality works. ;-)