Just when you might have been relaxing, a contented smile playing on your face, sure that you had finally understood the RoHS and WEEE Directives, you turn to the annexe of RoHS – exemptions.
So you read through that, not so difficult, you think. But what you might not know is there are 22 other applications for exemption currently being considered. And there are applications for exemptions being received at the European Commission (EC) all the time.
In fact, RoHS has not been set up to be a fixed Directive. Instead it has been set up as a flexible arrangement, particularly regarding exemptions. For example, a number of exemptions are already timetabled to run out in 2010, four years after the 1 June 2006 start date comes into force.
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| Paul Goodman |
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For example, explains Paul Goodman of ERA Technology, the use of lead in solders for servers, storage and network infrastructure is exempt from the ban because there is uncertainty over long term reliability. “By 2010 we will have information to see if the exemption could end,” says Goodman.
The exemptions from RoHS will be reviewed every four years with the aim of removing the exemption.
Exemptions are either applications or materials, with the majority being applications, says Goodman.
Why exempt?
Materials or applications of materials can be exempt if no suitable alternative substance is available or no engineering solution to avoid the use of the material can be established.
Also if an alternative material is not available in sufficient quantities, is less reliable or no less dangerous, an exemption could apply.
Pricing of an alternative is also considered but only at the final product stage, says Goodman. For example, replacing tin-lead solder with tin-silver-copper is four times the price but only any additional cost added to the final product in the shop is to be considered. |
Initial exemptions in the annex of the RoHS Directive (which is called Directive 2002/95/EC) contained ten points. The first nine covered the use of lead, cadmium and other banned substances in specific applications.
The tenth point covered four possible exemptions to be assessed: Deca BDE; mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for special purposes; lead in solders for servers, storage and storage array systems, network infrastructure equipment for switching, signalling, transmission as well as network management for telecommunications; and light bulbs.
ERA Technology won a tender to review the four items contained in point ten and a further eight exemption applications received.
This led to an update of the Directive, currently in draft form. “The TAC [Technical Adaptation Committee] meeting on 10 December accepted the amendments but it has not been published yet. It has to be translated into twenty languages first,” says Goodman.
The amendments widen the RoHS exemptions annex to 15 points. Point 15 says the exempt applications for Deca BDE and light bulbs should be assessed.
A further 22 requests for exemption have been received by the EC and made public. Further requests have also been received and have yet to be made available to the public. An assessment of the further 22 applications will take some time to complete, once a tender company has been chosen.
An assessment could certainly not be completed until after the 1 June 2006 introduction date, which asks the question if those materials and uses are exempt, temporarily exempt or banned while they are being assessed. It is something the TAC is currently considering.
This makes assessing exemptions not just a four-yearly activity but a continuous process. There is likely to be a tender and bidding process for an examination of the extra 22 exemptions applied for. ERA Technology will be bidding to do the work.
Once these 22 applications are reviewed there are more to be assessed as applications are continuously being received. Such is the volume of applications for exemptions that the EC is considering setting up a standard application form and procedure.
This would potentially put the onus on the applicant to prove the case for exemption with their own study to back up the application, rather than the EC having to tender an assessment every time there are further applications.
If the exemptions situation sounds tortuous that's because it is. Further, once exemptions are added, deleted, or put under review, each member state of the EU has to update their legislation.
But there is more. The way RoHS and the WEEE recycling Directive interact on certain sectors is an additional complication. This is because, explains Kay Nimmo of Soldertec, WEEE and RoHS started out as one document which included a paragraph exempting the defence and aerospace sectors.
When the documents were split, this paragraph went with WEEE and not RoHS.
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| Kay Nimmo |
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“Most countries take it that it is included in RoHS,” says Nimmo, but not all, which is why the list of 22 extra items to be assessed for exempt status includes a paragraph that will cover the defence and aerospace sector.
Yet not all items on an aeroplane are necessarily exempt. “What was it designed for – if it is an entertainment system and not specific to aerospace, it is possibly not exempt, but if it is a flight control system then it is likely to be exempt,” says Nimmo.
To word the legislation to cover all the grey areas would be impossible because the detail of exemptions is so complicated. Gary Nevison, head of product market strategy at distributor Farnell InOne and chairman of Afdec’s RoHS team, says the single question he gets asked most often by customers is if a certain case is exempt.
Clearly the “grey area” is causing confusion at a lot of electronics firms.
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Current exemptions to RoHS
(including exemption additions currently in a draft stage):
*Mercury in compact fluorescent lamps not exceeding 5mg per lamp
*Mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for general purposes not exceeding 10mg of halophosphate, 5mg of triphosphate with normal lifetime and 8mg of triphosphate with long lifetime
*Mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for special purposes
*Mercury in other lamps not specifically mentioned in the annex
*Lead in glass of cathode ray tubes, electronic components and fluorescent tubes
*Lead as an alloying element in steel containing up to 0.35 per cent lead by weight, aluminium containing up to 0.4 per cent lead by weight and as a copper alloy containing up to four per cent lead by weight
*Lead in high melting temperature type solders (i.e. lead based alloys containing 85 per cent by weight or more lead). This includes: lead in solders for servers, storage and storage array systems, network infrastructure equipment for switching, signalling, transmission as well as network management for telecommunications; lead in electronic ceramic parts (e.g. piezoelectronic devices)
*Cadmium and its compounds in electrical contacts and cadmium plating except for applications banned under Directive 91/338EEC amending Directive 76/769EEC
*Hexavalent chromium as an anti-corrosion of the carbon steel cooling system in absorption refrigerators
*Lead in compliant pin connector systems
*Lead as a coating material for the thermal conduction module e-ring
*Lead and cadmium in optical and filter glass
*Lead in solders consisting of more than two elements for the connection between the pins and the package of microprocessors with a lead content of more than 80 per cent and less than 85 per cent by weight
*Lead in solders to complete a viable electrical connection between semiconductor die and carrier within integrated Flip Chip packages
A list of 22 further applications for exemption can be viewed at europa.eu.int/comm/environment/waste/rohs_consult.htm
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See also: Electronics Weekly's RoHS Directive and UK RoHS regulation, a roundup of content related to the RoHS Directive.