DCA: China RoHS Scope Clarified

May 9, 2006

by Michael Kirschner, president, Design Chain Associates LLC.

This article originally appeared in Green Supply Line.

RoHS Compliance Tools IHS offers a suite of tools to help manage RoHS compliance and electronics components databases. Complete this form for a free quote. RoHS/WEEE compliance solutions 4DOnline - Electronics DB tools TACTRAC - Obsolescence mgmt. Environmental compliance catalogs Intermat - MRO inventory data tool First Name: Last Name: Email address:

In the article on Green Supplyline entitled China to postpone RoHS legislation, we said that the MII would clarify the scope of what is now the "China RoHS" law. They have now done that, and it is something to behold.

The scope, described in Chapter 1, Article 3, paragraph (1) of the law, extends across most of the familiar territory of the EU RoHS directive with some notable differences:

• Radar systems,
• Medical devices and products,
• Automotive electronics,
• Electronic test equipment (some of which can be considered to be in Category 9 of the EU WEEE directive, rendering it out of scope of EU RoHS),
• Semiconductor (and other electronic component) manufacturing equipment (which in some cases are considered large scale industrial tools and are out of scope of EU RoHS), and
• All manner of electronic components including
  • Batteries,
  • Sensors,
  • Optical fiber, and
  • The materials that comprise many of these components

An English translation provided by Grace Lin of Grasp, LLC, as well as the original page, is linked at www.chinarohs.com (as is a link to an English translation of the law).

The other part of the equation is that, also as previously described, the Chinese law will be implemented in two phases. The first is a marking regimen that all products that are in scope must adhere to as of March 1, 2007. The second is the actual restriction of materials, the date and products affected by that will be described later this year when the first "catalogue" is issued.

One of the marking requirements, described in Chapter 2, Article 13, that must be followed in under a year requires listing the "toxic and harmful substances or elements" that are described in Chapter 1, Article 3, paragraph (4). This list is the same as the EU RoHS restricted materials list, but also implies that they may add materials in the future.

Another mark requirement described in Article 14 covers the materials used in packaging and shipping these products. It requires the manufacturer to define the materials used for packaging, and to use non-toxic, harmless, readily degradable and recyclable materials.

What does this mean?

1. Entire industries that have had to do little or nothing to comply with EU RoHS are suddenly behind the eight-ball and must quickly ascertain whether their products use these substances and, if so, which ones.
2. Companies that have been under the scope of EU RoHS and have believed it adequate to collect only Certificates of Compliance, or have been counting on exemptions, must validate and confirm material content of the components and parts they use.
3. Component manufacturers that have resisted requests for material content of their products and have either provided "Certificates of Compliance" or vague assurances that they do or do not use the restricted materials in their products need to now supply proof one way or the other.
4. Your suppliers' suppliers, even and especially in China, must be made aware that disclosure is a legal requirement if they want their materials and components to be used in products that are designated for the Chinese domestic market.
5. The entire industry needs to get on the ball and start using IPC 1752 - Materials Declaration Management. It is more than adequate to meet this requirement.
6. We do not believe that testing to validate this information is required for these marks; it will be required for products that are in the catalog, which we expect to be issued later this year.

If it hasn’t been clear until now, it finally should be. All manufacturing companies that utilize electrical and electronic components in their products, regardless of current and past legislation, need to reassess how they define and develop products with an eye toward environmental requirements. These will be coming fast and furious over the next few years with no guarantee of scope (or material, for that matter) commonality. Planning ahead and making some minor changes to your product development process will reduce, if not eliminate, costly fire drills like EU RoHS has caused and, I’m sure, China RoHS will cause.

Source: Design Chain Associates LLC.

For information about the China 'RoHS' legislation, visit DCA's China RoHS web site.