Is the Industry Ready for RoHS?

Dear Reader

After years of debate and speculation, the RoHS directive finally comes into force on July 1. With environmental protection in mind, the regulations ban the sale in the EU of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than the agreed levels of specified hazardous substances. These include not only lead, but also cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PolyBrominated Biphenyl (PBB) and PolyBrominated Diphenyl Ether (PBDE) flame retardants. That’s quite a challenge.

The transition to RoHS compliance is one of the biggest revolutions that the electronics industry has ever experienced. Preparation has been ongoing for the last four years, and there has been a marked increase in activity in the last two years or so as customers, manufacturers and distributors began to see the deadline looming.

The entire manufacturing process, including testing procedures, production control and soldering, has had to be changed. This has necessitated huge investments for manufacturers. Similarly, the whole supply chain has been undergoing enormous changes in order to handle orders and inventories separating RoHS-compliant parts from ‘leaded’ ones. This complex task has entailed major investments in new software. In addition, a huge amount of time has been – and is continuing to be – spent on updating part numbers, BOMs, drawings and specifications.

At the same time, suppliers have had to develop new housing materials, plastic mouldings and soldering terminal materials. Some suppliers changed part number when switching to RoHS, while others did not. This caused a lot of confusion and made it very difficult to determine whether some components were RoHS-compliant or not.

On Course for Compliance

With July 1 almost upon us, the majority of Arrow’s customers seem to be ready, or virtually ready to meet the demands of the RoHS directive. Some have already made the transition to RoHS compliancy, while others are poised to do so during June.

Certain customers are exempt – for example equipment manufacturers in the medical, military and space instrumentation markets are not affected by the directive. Consequently, component manufacturers still have to maintain production of ‘leaded’ parts for these customers.

Turning to component manufacturers, the vast majority have successfully made the transition to RoHS compliance. However, statistics show that a fast growing market demand for components is resulting in increased lead times.

The distributor supply chain, in large part, also appears to be ready for July 1. At Arrow Northern Europe, 75% of inventory is currently RoHS-compliant. By the end of June the figure will reach 82%. At that point Arrow will have achieved its goal. The figure is below 100% as the company serves a number of RoHS-exempt customers that still require leaded parts.

The entire Arrow organisation – including logistics, warehousing, engineering and sales – is prepared for RoHS. The company is also keen to provide help and guidance to any customers that might have concerns about making a smooth transition.

Preben Risvang
Administrerende direktør, Arrow Denmark