PCB News - ROHS assessment of lead-free products in SMT

It is very important to conduct ROHS conformity assessment on lead-free industrial products to ensure compliance with ROHS. Since there is currently no uniform standard required for the entire supply chain (from material, PCB, component manufacturers to distributors, to end product manufacturers) to comply with the ROHS directive, how to take reasonable measures to evaluate and review to avoid violations more difficult.

The following briefly introduces how to evaluate through their own capabilities to ensure that their products meet the requirements for free of prohibited substances, and what technical documents are used to prove their compliance.

1. Check and evaluate the entire supply chain, from process materials, PCB and component manufacturers to distributors for ROHS compliance

The ROHS directive is actually aimed at electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), and does not directly manage the parts and materials used in the production equipment. Therefore, the control of components and various materials needs to be done by the equipment manufacturers themselves, which is actually a supply chain management problem. Therefore, equipment manufacturers need to evaluate, (Nanjing smt) management and confirmation of the ROHS conformity of the component and material suppliers, and confirm the authenticity of the self-declaration of the materials provided by the suppliers. This work is very important and complicated. And cumbersome, a little carelessness will not meet the ROHS directive. Therefore, this work is a key task to ensure that the restricted use of toxic and hazardous substances in ROHS is controlled from the source.

Ask suppliers and distributors for some questions, and conduct ROHS compliance investigation, management and confirmation of the materials they provide.

1. Are the ROHS-compliant products in the warehouse mixed with non-compliant products, or are they placed separately?

2. Are any products that comply with the instruction assigned a new material number?

3. Have you created a data tracking record starting from the supplier? And require each product to have detailed and accurate information?

4. Have you physically checked the part labels and compared them with the data collected from the supplier to verify their consistency?

5. Have risk assessments been conducted for each supplier to ensure the accuracy of the information obtained?

6. Do you ask for independent test results from "high-risk" suppliers to verify their claims?

7. Are any external tests performed to resolve the inconsistency?

8. Is there a process for solving the inconsistency problem with the supplier?

9. Is there a channel for communicating with customers who purchased the product about inconsistency?

10. Do you provide labels and compliance certificates to describe the compliance of the relevant components to the ROHS directive?

2, check the lead-free production material management of the end product manufacturer (manufacturing plant)

is also very important for the material management of lead-free materials,PCBs, and components after they enter the manufacturing plant. It is necessary to check whether the end PCB product manufacturer has established a lead-free material management system and measures in accordance with the requirements, and whether they have been implemented carefully.

3. Check whether the production line meets environmental protection requirements and whether the PCB manufacturing process has good management and control without introducing harmful substances

4. When necessary, detect, analyze, and certify hazardous substances in certain materials or components

The measurement of lead content in components mainly has the following methods:

1. Grind and crush the components to measure the content of Pb. This method is relatively simple and cheap, and is used for the detection of resistance and capacitance;

2. The components of the component ends and pins are separated, the Pb content is measured, and the method is used for the detection of BGA and QFP;

3. Use a handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) alloy analyzer for detection.

5. Is the Self-Declaration correct?

The so-called self-declaration is a way for the manufacturer of the equipment to declare to the supervisory authority or the user that its product does not contain hazardous substances and meets ROHS requirements based on the understanding of its own products.

Self-declaration is not arbitrarily made. If you don’t understand your own products, the components or materials used are not strictly inspected, and the manufacturing process is not strictly controlled, the self-declaration made under this condition will be extremely Big risk. Once found to be suspicious and found to be non-compliant with ROHS, severe penalties will be imposed.

6. Ask experienced experts to assist in the evaluation