UL Program Tests For RoHS Compliance

The European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive won't take effect until July 2006, but many OEMs are already concerned. Failure to comply could keep their products out of the EU—or even result in civil or criminal penalties.

Help is available through the Underwriters Laboratories Restricted Substances Compliance Solutions (RSCS) program. The RSCS can help OEMs monitor the compliance of supply-chain partners, reduce the cost of internal compliance efforts, and identify compliant substitution options, according to Maxime Elbaz, general manager of the program.

Suppliers can use the program to reduce the cost and complexity of compliance reports by creating one report available online. The RSCS will test and monitor for six substances banned by the RoHS Directive: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl, and polybrominated diphenyl ether. The program consists of three major elements:

Testing of homogeneous products: UL will test for the restricted elements using a combination of its own facilities, UL-qualified labs, and UL-qualified customer labs.

RSCS database: A password-protected database will list specific manufacturer-supplied part numbers and the corresponding test data.

Surveillance of global supply partners: A network of compliance engineers will visit RSCS customers twice a year to check on how they are determining RoHS compliance, given changes in materials, suppliers, or manufacturing processes.

"With the growing importance of global markets in a company's success, these organizations need a global partner to help lead them through the increasingly complex international regulatory environment," said Elbaz. "UL is well positioned to play a key role in helping those corporations succeed."

Underwriters Laboratorieswww.ul-rscs.com