What does RoHS mean
I. Definitions:
RoHS is a mandatory standard set by EU legislation, and its full name is the Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment. The standard has been officially implemented on July 1, 2006, mainly used to standardize the material and process standards for electronic and electrical products, making it more conducive to human health and environmental protection. The purpose of the standard is to eliminate lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers in electrical and electronic products (note: PBDE is the correct Chinese name refers to polybrominated diphenyl ethers, PBDEs are the wrong way to say) a total of 6 substances, and to specify that the lead content can not exceed 0.1%.
2. Directives
On 13 February 2003, the European Parliament and the European Commission published in their Official Journal the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS Directive).
The RoHS Directive and the WEEE Directive stipulate that there are 102 products in ten categories that are included in the restriction management of hazardous substances and the management of scrap recycling, and the first seven categories of products are the main export electrical products in China. Including large household appliances, small household appliances, information and communication equipment, consumer products, lighting equipment, electrical and electronic tools, toys, leisure and sports equipment, medical equipment (except implanted or infected products), monitoring and control instruments, vending machines.
RoHS Scope: Only for new products launched on the market from July 1, 2006. Includes household incandescent lamps and light sources.
Special directives or regulations on special safety and health requirements should not be violated – Vehicle ELV, Vehicle Directive; Battery Directive, 91/157/EEC, 93/86/EEC&98/101/EC
Excludes: medical equipment or monitoring equipment (WeEE Directive No. 8, 9); Maintenance spare parts that were put on the market before July 1, 2006; Reused products that were previously put on the market before July 1, 2006.
RoHS for all production processes and raw materials may contain the above six harmful substances of electrical and electronic products, mainly including: white goods, such as refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, water heaters, etc., black home appliances, such as audio, video products, DVDs, CDs, TV receivers, IT products, digital products, communication products, etc.; Power tools, electric electronic toys, medical electrical equipment.
1. Lead (Pb) Examples of using the substance: solder, glass, PVC stabilizer
2. Examples of mercury (Hg) (mercury) using the substance: thermostats, sensors, switches and relays, light bulbs
3. Cadmium (Cd) Examples of the use of the substance: switches, springs, connectors, housings and PCBs, contacts, batteries
4. Hexavalent chromium (Cr 6+) Example of the use of the substance: metal anti-corrosion coating
5. Examples of polybrominated biphenyls (PBBS) using the substance: flame retardants, PCBs, connectors, plastic housings
6. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) Examples of the use of the substance: flame retardants, PCBs, connectors, plastic housings
Fourth, the test principle
According to the requirements of the EU WEEE & RoHS Directive, the domestic qualified third-party testing agency is to split the product according to the material, and test the harmful substances in different materials. Generally speaking:
Metal materials need to be tested for four harmful metal elements such as (Cd cadmium / Pb lead / Hg mercury / Cr6 + hexavalent chromium)
In addition to inspecting these four harmful heavy metal elements, the plastic material also needs to detect brominated flame retardants (PBB/PBDE)
At the same time, the packaging materials of different materials also need to be tested separately for heavy metals of packaging materials (94/62/EEC)
The following are the upper limit concentrations for the six hazardous substances in RoHS:
Cadmium: less than 100 ppm
Lead: less than 1000 ppm
Less than 3500 ppm in steel alloys
Less than 4000ppm in aluminum alloy
Less than 40000ppm in copper alloys
Mercury: less than 1000 ppm
Hexavalent chromium: less than 1000 ppm
5. The 27 member states of the European Union:
United Kingdom (exit from the European Union in 2016), France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Cyprus, Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania.
Sixth, the RoHS Directive covers the electronic and electrical products listed in the catalog for AC1000V and DC1500V below:
1, large household appliances: refrigerator, washing machine, microwave oven, air conditioning, etc
2, small household appliances: vacuum cleaners, electric irons, hair dryers, ovens, clocks and watches, etc
3. IT and communication instruments: computers, fax machines, telephones, mobile phones, etc
4. Civil devices: radios, televisions, video recorders, musical instruments, etc
5. Lighting appliances: fluorescent lamps such as fluorescent lamps other than household lighting, lighting control devices
6. Power tools: electric drill, lathe, welding, sprayer, etc
7. Toys/entertainment, sports equipment: electric vehicles, video game machines, automatic gambling machines, etc
8. Medical equipment: radiation therapy instrument, electrocardiogram tester, analytical instrument, etc
9. Monitoring/control device: smoke detector, incubator, factory monitoring control machine, etc
10, vending machine It not only includes the whole machine products, but also includes the parts, raw materials and packaging used in the production of the whole machine, which is related to the entire production chain.
7. Test methods
The relevant products are sent to a professional laboratory for testing, to split the product into a single material and a uniform material after testing, of which lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and other six harmful substances in line with the requirements of the RoHS Directive, if they meet the RoHS compliance report and certificate, if not, you have to find another product that meets the requirements for replacement.
VIII. Detailed testing process of ROHS certification body:
1. Fill in the ROHS certification application form according to the requirements of the ROHS certification body, the application form can contact the sample testing to collect, or you can download it on the official website of the ROHS certification center, and mail it to the designated location after filling it out.
2. Select a third-party testing agency to complete the testing of the product. For enterprises, the ROHS agency can choose the full entrustment type (the testing and certification of the product are completed by the ROHS agency), or the semi-entrusted certification method can be selected (only the ROHS agency completes the product testing link, and the product certification link is completed by the enterprise itself). Two different ways of entrustment, ROHS agency fees will also be different, in general, choose the fully entrusted way ROHS agency fee is more cost-effective.
3, to the selected agency to pay, the agency to complete the test link of the sample provided by the enterprise, ROHS certification of the product test cycle is short, generally after the sample is handed over to the ROHS agency, it only takes about a week to complete the test link of the sample.
4. After the sample test is passed, the ROHS certification report will be issued by the ROHS certification body, which is generally mailed to the address reserved by the enterprise by courier. If the enterprise has special requirements, you can also send someone to the ROHS certification body center to get the ROHS certification report in person.
9. Significance of certification
Products do not do RoHS certification, will cause immeasurable damage to the manufacturer, then your products are not cared for, lose the market, if your products are lucky to enter the other market, once found, will encounter high fines and even criminal detention, thus, may lead to the closure of the entire enterprise.
Many large enterprises have long studied and prepared for RoHS certification, and many products have passed RoHS certification, but there are still many small and medium-sized enterprises that are still quite unfamiliar with RoHS certification, half-understood, fog to see flowers, unclear, do not know where to start, do not know who to identify.