Prohibited Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment
ROHS Directive Substances Directive
The ROHS Directive specifies that electronic and electrical equipment containing banned substances (the first batch: Cd cadmium and its compounds, Pb lead and its compounds, Hg mercury and its compounds, Cr6+ hexavalent chromium compounds, PBBs polybrominated biphenyls, and PBDEs polybrominated diphenyl ethers) shall not be allowed to be sold in the European Union market, and was enforced on July 1st 2006 onwards. The Directive applies to all products and equipment with an operating voltage not exceeding 1000V AC and 1500V DC. Due to the ROHS Directive, the whole product is not tested, but the product is split according to the material, and different materials are tested for banned substances. Therefore, it is important to choose downstream suppliers. Generally speaking, metal materials need to be tested for four banned heavy metals (Cd cadmium / Pb lead / Hg mercury / Cr6 + hexavalent chromium), non-metallic materials need to be tested for brominated flame retardants (polybrominated biphenyls PBBs / polybrominated diphenyl ethers PBDEs) in addition to testing for the four prohibited heavy metals, and also packaging materials made of different materials need to be tested for packaging materials for heavy metals respectively (94/62/EEC).
The ROHS Directive is also self-declared like CE. Laboratories with third-party testing qualifications can issue such test reports.