Maintaining Environmental Compliance
Are you a manufacturer who frequently introduces new and updated version of your products in the market? Have you ever checked whether your products maintain environmental compliance or do they contribute to the increasing electronic waste? Ensuring the proper disposal of your old and obsolete products is one of the primary measures to obtain environmental […]
RoHS and WEEE – to minimize e-waste
The Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, popularly known as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), were two of the initiatives adopted by the European Union, in order to solve the issues of increasing electronic […]
Environmental compliance services – beyond the EU
For the average office, environmental compliance management probably rotates around waste recycling and energy usage. However, for the electrical or mechanical engineering company things are far more complex, especially if you ship goods abroad. RoHS, WEEE and REACH EU regulations don’t just affect companies based within Europe – they affect any company trading with the […]
GADSL and the ELV directive – how do they affect your company?
The ELV (end of life vehicle) directive is similar to the RoHS and WEEE compliance schemes, in that it was an EU directive designed to restrict the amount of hazardous materials reaching the environment. This was achieved in two ways: by restricting the substances used in the manufacture of new vehicles and their components, and […]
Does your ASIC design reflect a conflict of material interests?
Every printed circuit board and VLSI design seems to rotate around checking if solders are RoHS compliant, and if corrosion coatings obey the REACH directive. Now, there’s a new question – does it involve using conflict minerals? Conflict minerals have nothing to do with WEEE and RoHS directives, but with the humanitarian crisis in Africa, […]
Annex II of the ELV directive relaxes rules for automotive system development
Automotive hardware design is a lucrative area for mechanical engineering professionals – but fraught with environmental compliance management issues. As well as GADSL and the international material data system, there’s also the ELV (end of life vehicle) directive. Like the RoHS and WEEE compliance schemes, ELV restricts the use of four toxic metals – lead, […]
Changes to ELV directive make life easier for automotive system designers
ELV compliance management can be a time-consuming and confusing issue for those involved with automotive mechanical engineering, or who make embedded firmware for the automotive industry. However, a recently added annex to the ELV directive has made environmental compliance management just a little easier for the automotive engineering industry. The ELV directive was introduced to […]
Is your Californian VHDL design RoHS compliant enough for the EU?
California has adopted its own versions of the EU WEEE and ROHS compliance laws – but if you are exporting goods to EU states, you still need to follow the EU ROHS/WEEE rulings, because Californian protocol may not be enough. The RoHS and WEEE directives have become global acronyms, generic terms for the regulation of […]
The RoHS directive: Can we really live with lead-free solders?
The RoHS/REACH directive bans the use of lead in PCB layouts, ASIC designs and other electronic systems, which has had far-reaching consequences for the engineering industry worldwide. Following the global adoption of the RoHS regulations, there has been a monumental shift towards lead-free solders by component manufacturers and PCB designers. However, the decision has proven […]
Environmental compliance and EMC emissions
Environmental compliance is not confined to the RoHS/WEEE directive and International Material Data System. As well as the materials used in manufacturing, there is the environmental impact of the system design itself to consider, such as EM (electromagnetic) emissions. EM compliance is a major issue for any electrical/electronic hardware designer, whether their product produces EM […]