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IPC Materials Standards Ready for Release
By Rob Spiegel -- Electronic News, 2/22/2006
The long-awaited materials standards for documenting and communicating the content of RoHS-ready components – IPC 1751 (Generic Requirements for Declaration Process Management) and IPC-1752 (Materials Declaration Management) have been completed and approved by the standards organization, the Association Connecting Electronics Industries (IPC) of Bannockburn, Ill.
A standardized manner for delivering components data comes at a time the industry is laboring to get Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive (RoHS) compliant. “The standard is critically important, as companies have been struggling over their materials information. They really need a format,” said Eric Karofsky, senior research analyst at AMR Research Inc. in Boston. “The standard will be very positive for component suppliers delivering the information and for the OEMs and contract manufacturers [CM] that are consuming the information.”
The standards arrive just under the wire as the electronics industry nears the July 1, 2006, deadline for RoHS compliance. Companies selling products in Europe Union (EU) countries need to be able to prove they have taken “all reasonable measures” to make sure their products do not contain more than acceptable levels of the six hazardous substances outlined in the RoHS directive. The U.K. and other EU countries have indicated they will need more than simple certificates of compliance to indicate the OEM has taken all reasonable measures. That means they need to be able to provide detailed materials content declarations for each component and sub-assembly in their products.
A 59-member IPC committee went to work on a materials content standard last spring, building on the results of the iNEMI Material Composition Data Exchange Project. The resulting IPC-1751 and IPC-1752 standards provide a UML data model, XML schema and standard forms to support the electronics exchange of materials composition data.
The standards are intended to reduce the cost and complexity of RoHS compliance, while increasing data quality and decreasing response times. “IPC-1752 is particularly significant because it streamlines and consolidates a multitude of competing data formats, while in turn simplifying the RoHS compliance process,” said Dries D’hooghe, senior director, product strategy and management at San Jose-based Agile Software Corp. “For us, support of this standard makes sense as several of our customers have been active on the IPC committee and they plan to adopt the processes and forms specified by IPC-1752.”
Companies supporting the development of the standard include Celestica, Cisco Systems, Delphi Corp., Foxconn, Freescale Semiconductor, Intel, Maxtor, Sun Microsystems, Teradyne Connections Systems and Texas Instruments. The release of the standards comes during an industry semi-crisis as component manufacturers rush to send materials content declarations to their nervous OEM and CM customers. The data is currently being transferred in a wide variety of formats, primarily in non-standardized Excel spreadsheets.
Knowing the industry is facing a hard RoHS deadline, IPC developed the standard in record time. Those involved in the speedy process have been recognized for their “exceptional contribution” with Special Recognition Awards for leadership in the development of IPC-1751 and IPC-1752. Those recognized include Mark Frimann of Texas Instruments, Eric Simmon of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Richard Kubin of E2open. Another 16 committee members were also recognized for their contributions to the quick development of the standards.
Many companies desperate to find a standard format to communicate materials content started using the IPC standards when they were available in draft form last summer. IPC received nearly 1,500 requests for the proposed standard, a record number of downloads for a draft standard.
The final form of the standard will differ slightly from the draft, as many companies offered suggestions for improving it. “The final standard is somewhat different from the draft,” said Fern Abrams, director of environmental policy for IPC. “Its treatment of audit and verification – that changed quite a bit. The XML had also changed, so companies using the draft will have to make some changes.”
Abrams noted that the final form is not backward compatible with the draft version, though future updates will be. “If we release amendments, they will be backward compatible, but the final version is not compatible with the draft,” she said. “People used the draft at their own risk.”
AMR’s Karofsky noted the standard comes at a late date for those trying to meet the July 1 RoHS deadline. “It would have been helpful if the standard was released many months ago. Companies have already done what they’re going to do for July 1, 2006,” said Karofsky. “But for year two, three and beyond, this standard will have real benefits.”
