UL
is introducing a new program to assist Original Equipment Manufacturers
(OEMs) or components suppliers to be a “supplier of choice”
in the “green” marketplace by demonstrating compliance with
the various hazardous substances regulations.
Whether you are an OEM or a components supplier, you need to comply
with the growing list of regulations restricting the use of hazardous
substances in your products.
The European Union’s (EU) directives are the most recent in a number
of restrictions aimed at eliminating hazardous substances from consumer
products and the environments:
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances
(RoHS) Directive will be effective starting
July 2006. It aims at removing six substances — lead, mercury,
cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl, and polybrominated
diphenyl ether — from electrical and electronic equipment.
The Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment (WEEE) Directive (2002/96/EC) came effective in February 2003.
It sets collection, recycling and recovery requirements for various
categories of electrical products.
Other regional “green” legislations include:
In the U.S., California and Massachusetts have laws restricting the
use of hazardous substances and more states will follow.
In China, the Procedures for the Administration of Pollution Prevention
and Control in the Production of Electronic Information Products (Article
11) require manufacturers to restrict the use of the same substances
targeted by Europe in certain consumer electronic products.
To help customers demonstrate compliance with the various hazardous substances
regulations, UL offers the Restricted Substances Compliance Solutions
(RSCS) that brings the benefits of:
Testing
services
UL
offers comprehensive restricted substances testing for electrical
and electronic equipment materials, including those identified
by the RoHS Directive.
With UL’s network of technical facilities, qualified third-party laboratories
and certified client labs, customers can enjoy fast turnaround of test results.
Quality
control
UL’s surveillance
minimizes the cost of duplicate product testing. Commencing
the sample testing of your initial production batch, a UL field
representative assures that the components/ products you continuously
produce does not contain an exceeding level of restricted substances.
You can also avoid the high cost associated with internal testing of repeat
production, and the repeat submittal of test data to different buyers.
Quality
assurance
UL
offers management registration programs for validating your
operation’s environmental health and safety, including
ISO 14001, ISO 9001, TL 9000, and ISO/TS:16949 and AS 9100.
Regulatory
knowledge
You are kept abreast
of the latest developments in hazardous substances laws. UL
takes an active part in various hazardous substances regulatory
processes by assuming roles in TC1081
and ACEA of IEC2 , D9 & D20 of ASTM3
and maintaining close relationships with RoHS TAC4.
Additionally, our RSCS database publishes the test data of suppliers’
components/products. Buyers are given a sourcing tool for new
products.
Remarks:
TC 108— Technical Committee for “Safety of
Electronic Equipment within the Field of Audio/ Video, Information
Technology and Communication Technology”
ACEA of IEC— Ad hoc Working Group on RoHS Testing,
Advisory Committee on Environmental Aspects of International
Electrotechnical Committee
D9 & D20 of ASTM— “Electrical Insulating
Materials” & “Plastics” Committees,
American Society for Testing and Materials
RoHS TAC— RoHS Technical Adaptation Committee
For more information about the UL RSCS program, contact
the UL
office near you.
