Identifying and managing substances of concern in electronics

The European Union (EU) REACH regulation, recast of the EU RoHS Directive (“RoHS-2”) and various global substance regulations impose significant challenges for all actors in the electrical and electronics industry. This paper presents systematic restricted and declarable substances compliance and assessment methods based on supply chain information, analytical testing, and engineering judgment. International Standards and experience with regulated substances are shown to be invaluable to manufacturers in helping to achieve compliance. The new International Standard for materials declaration (IEC 62474) and other International Standards are discussed as they are particularly important given their relevance to the European EN 50581 standard for RoHS-2. We also present a summary of results obtained during the four years of analytical testing for Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). Such information can assist manufacturers in developing a risk-based test program focusing their efforts on the highest risk parts and SVHCs.