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LTK taps Underwriters Laboratory for RoHS Compliance
By Rob Spiegel -- Electronic News, 11/9/2005
LTK Industries Ltd., a Hong Kong-based cable and wire producer, has chosen Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) of Northbrook, Ill. to establish its compliance with the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive.
UL’s Restrictive Substances Compliance Solutions (RSCS) program is designed to help companies meet RoHS requirements through materials testing and surveillance of global components suppliers. The RSCS program is also designed to assist with its customers’ compliance declaration procedures.
As the RoHS deadline of July 1, 2006 nears, OEMs and component suppliers in the electronics industry have become concerned about their ability to demonstrate compliance. They are also concerned about collecting and managing the compliance data required by European governmental bodies. The exact nature of the data required by governmental bodies overseeing compliance remains unknown.
In response to these uncertainties, the not-for-profit UL has developed the RSCS program to test homogeneous products for restricted substances, create a database of components, and provide surveillance of global parts suppliers. The RSCS program was developed to serve both OEMs and their component suppliers.
The UL program is attractive to OEMs and suppliers because UL is closely following EU compliance developments and because the group has developed testing methods that specifically address RoHS requirements. “The RoHS directive is quite clear, but there is no structured way to prove you are in compliance,” Peter Ford, LTK’s director of business development in North America and Europe told Electronic News. “UL has gotten involved in tracking compliance requirements.”
UL has also helped LTK manage the data required to prove compliance. “They’ve helped up set up how we manage compliance internally,” said Ford. “They provide a shared database of component information, and they provide third-party testing.” Ford noted that the test results become available to LTK’s partners in its supply chain. LTK customers can use the test results to prove compliance on products that include LTK cables and wire products. “Our customers have to show evidence that their products are in compliance,” said Ford. “If you’re going to be a supplier, you have to be compliant and you have to show it.” UL helps LTK provide a paper trail of compliance for customers.
UL modeled its RSCS initiative on its existing safety assurance programs. “We look at RoHS compliance as very similar to safety compliance,” Max Elbaz, general manager of RSCS told Electronic News. “We developed an appropriate test method for RoHS-restricted substances and we created inspections at the factory level.” UL then takes that test and inspection results data and puts it into a database of component suppliers.
Elbaz noted that the process of testing and inspecting was designed to satisfy any requirements the EU governmental bodies may use to assess compliance. “[OEMs] need to put in place a process to demonstrate they took all the necessary steps to become compliant,” said Elbaz. “Testing and inspections do it. He noted that representatives from the UK’s Department of Industries have stated they expect companies to do some testing to assure they meet RoHS directive requirements.
UL developed a test specifically to detect the six substances restricted by the RoHS directive. “There are exiting tests for soil and water, but these methods do not apply for electronic devices,” said Elbaz. “So we put together a team that created methodologies that are applicable for electronic devices.”
