Product category:
Compliance Engineering
News Release from: Innov-X Systems | Subject: Innov-X analyser
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 29 September 2005
Handheld analyser checks RoHS compliance
The Innov-X portable point-and-shoot XRF analyser provides a fast, confident nondestructive screening tool for electronic parts, components and assembled products.
Manufacturers are now faced with taking full responsibility for pollution due to discarded electronic products and to develop nontoxic replacements for metals widely being used These include lead solder and coatings, bromine and antimony flame retardants, titanium and cobalt pigments, and stabilisers and fillers such as arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, mercury and nickel
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 29 May 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Don Sackett, Innov-X Systems President, offers a handheld tool for testing electronics components as well as for developing nontoxic high-performance replacement materials with worldwide applicability.
"Simple, proven tools are available for manufacturers and governments to test these materials", says Sackett.
"The Innov-X portable point-and-shoot XRF analyser provides a fast, confident nondestructive screening tool of electronic parts, components and assembled products".
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"It is used for monitoring toxic metal levels, for compliance verification, for on-site QC, and for documented traceability".
Much research is being focused on replacements for lead solder.
Although lead has been used extensively in soldering circuit boards for years, its health hazards coupled with the extensive disposal of outdated electronic equipment has caused world governments to reduce or eliminate lead's use in electronics.
This has increased the use of pure tin for solder and coatings, creating problems of "tin-whiskering".
Pure tin can grow "whiskers", or filamentary corrosion, which can short out electronics.
This is not only a commercial problem: "tin whiskers" in medical devices, satellites, missiles and other military or security-sensitive equipment can cause problems that are far reaching.
Consequently, "tin whiskers" also pose safety, reliability and potential liability threats.
Other pure and lead-free solder alloy substitutes, such as Ag, Cu, Zn, Bi, In, Sb and Cd, are also potential causes of failure for electronic equipment.
"New Pb-free solder alloys and coatings must be developed, tested and monitored; the Innov-X analyser is ideal for these applications", continues Sackett.
Aside from obvious production and liability costs, it will be necessary for manufacturers to verify compliance with existing and emerging environmental directives.
The primary focus for a scheduled phase-out of lead and other toxic materials in electronic product manufacture are focused on commercial use in high population densities such as Japan and the EU.
As those regions are doing, the USA will specify maximum allowable concentrations, but the USA is in the stage of reporting levels as opposed to completely banning these materials.
Directives include, but are not limited to, RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), WEEE (Waste Electrical/Electronic Equipment), and ELV (End of Life Vehicles Directive).
Military electronic equipment is currently exempt from the directives; however, the US Joint Group on Pollution Prevention (JG-PP) which includes major aerospace, electronic, military, solder and coating manufacturers, and other defence contractors will feel the effects of these directives as the military is one of the largest markets for electronic products.
It would not be commercially feasible for manufacturers to track and repair lead-containing materials for the military against lead-free materials for commercial use electronics.
"Consequently", adds Sackett, "the military and its vendors have a vested interest in thoroughly testing the new metals and alloys for solder and coatings".
The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) is proactively developing programmes to reduce the environmental impacts of manufacturing from design to end of life, but it is likely that all governments will eventually be enacting legislation and regulations for this industry.
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