ELV compliance – Allegro drivers, take note
Vehicle recycling is nothing new, but the REACH EU directive is. The vehicles being scrapped today are incredibly complex, loaded with electronic gadgetry which can no longer be consigned to the landfills; it must be recycled in an environmentally compliant manner. Additionally, new vehicles and their components must be made from materials which obey RoHS […]
Reaching ELV compliance in the UK
The RoHS and REACH EU directives have had many spin-offs, such as the End of Life Vehicle, or ELV directive which came into force in January 2006. As part of its structured program of environmental reforms, the EU wants 85% of all scrap vehicle content to be recycled. At present the scheme is around 75% […]
System software for environmental compliance management
The new RoHS and REACH EU directives are making it more important than ever to have clearly defined obsolescence management and data cleansing strategies when planning your engineering projects. Environmental compliance management (ECM) is complex, involving a high degree of component cross-referencing, data cleaning and other tasks related to the Bill of Materials. For this […]
When WEEE Compliance Can Cause Problems For Hardware Designers
The RoHS WEEE directive specifically forbids the use of lead in electronic components, unless the lead content is 0.1% or lower. This has effectively seen the end of tin lead (SnPb) finishes to a large extent, as component manufacturers switch to non-lead finishes. Some categories – for example, medical instruments and FPGA design for monitoring […]
VHDL Design And The WEEE Directive
Even simple mechanical engineering projects make use of VHDL design now. VHDL stands for VHSIC hardware description language, VHSIC being Very High Speed Integrated Circuitry. Basically, it’s a hardware design language used to describe electronic systems such as FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays). What does this have to do with RoHS WEEE legislation? Quite a lot […]
REACHing Across the Divide
Just as component engineering companies had got their heads around the intricacies of RoHS and WEEE legislation, along came the REACH EU directive, the most complex of the European Union laws yet. Much as there is a need for environmental compliance, mechanical design companies are feeling distinctly frazzled at this latest addition to their workload. […]
PCN Alerts – A Growing Problem With REACH Regulation
With the dreaded “gang of three” – RoHS, WEEE and REACH compliance – now in full force, obsolescence management systems are going into overdrive, not least in the fields of electronic component engineering and mechanical design. With environmental compliance now central to everything engineering companies do, it’s no wonder they turn so many of the […]
Obsolescence Management and REACH Legislation
The REACH directive is an unwanted burden to companies already struggling under the weight of WEEE and ROHS compliance. RoHS/WEEE legislation covers just six main chemicals – more than enough for the average CAD designer or DSP programming engineer. REACH covers thousands more, affecting hardware design companies who were previously RoHS-exempt, as well as those […]
Obsolescence Management – RoHS Directive Exemptions
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS/WEEE) directives became legally binding in 2006. Although a number of applications were exempt from the rules, the dates for many of these have expired – with more to follow. This has had tremendous repercussions on hardware design companies whose products are dependent upon […]
The WEEE Problem of Obsolete Semiconductors
Following toxic chemical concerns, the EU RoHS WEEE (Regulation of Hazardous Substances/Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive became European law in February 2003, with the deadline for full compliance being set at August 2004. The result was thousands of suddenly obsolete semiconductors which had to be replaced with lead-free alternatives. There were six banned chemicals […]