RoHS, WEEE and ELV a general statement on compliance

 

 

Latest Issue 1/1/2007

 

 

The European Union’s directives on the “Restriction of Hazardous Substances” (RoHS), “Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” (WEEE) and the “End of Life Vehicles” (ELV) was originally published in 2003.

 

It controls the use of specified hazardous substances in electronic and electrical equipment from 1st July 2006 and vehicles sold in Europe from 1st July 2007.

 

For the purposes of the RoHS regulations, a maximum concentration value of up to 0.1% by weight in homogenous materials for Lead*, Mercury, Hexavalent Chromium, PPB and PBDE and up to 0.01% by weight in homogenous materials for Cadmium will be permitted in the manufacture of new EEE. These values were established through the adoption of a Commission Decision on the 18th August 2005 but may be subject to change in the future.

 

* Lead – Exceptions: An annex of the Directive currently allows up to 0.35% for lead when used as an alloying agent. NPL uses leaded Steel (En1a Pb / 230M07 Pb) bar stock in the manufacture of most steel turned fasteners and components and is within RoHS limits.

 

Homogeneous material means a material that cannot be mechanically disjoined into different materials. The term homogeneous is understood as “of uniform composition throughout” so examples of homogeneous materials would be individual types of plastics, ceramics, glass, metals, alloys, paper, board, resins and coatings.

 

NP is a producer of fasteners for use in the sheet metal fabrication, automotive and electronics industries and is committed to complying with the RoHS, WEEE and ELV directives and to fully support its customers in their compliance.

 

NP does not use mercury, polybrominated biphenyls or polybrominated diphenyl ethers in, or as a surface coating for any of its products.

 

From 1/1/2005 we have been replacing all plating processes that involved Hexavalent Chromium with a RoHS compliant Cr3 (Trivalent) process for all our standard line fasteners.

 

 

The following outlines which products are compliant:

 

 

All Steel Parts supplied unplated with a part number suffix X or GX are RoHS Compliant.

 

All Steel Zinc Plated Fasteners with a part suffix ZI, GZ, or SZ are RoHS Compliant with Cr3 (Trivalent) platings.

 

Our new Trivalent based platings provide similar or better performance than the old hexavalent platings.

Where corrosion resistance is an issue, please contact our technical sales department for clarification of expected performance. We can offer other RoHS compliant platings that provide up to 1000 hours salt spray resistance if necessary.

 

Some Self Clinching fasteners that have a locking feature have a dry film lubricant applied. Those part numbers with a suffix of EF, ZF or F are not RoHS compliant because the dry film lubricant contains Cadmium and Lead. Our new standard RoHS finish is a Molybdenum based dry film lubricant and has a part suffix of MD. Please specify if RoHS compliance is required when enquiring or placing an order for locking fasteners as we still do carry stock of non RoHS compliant parts. From 1/1/2006 all newly manufactured parts will have an MD finish as standard.

 

All Sheetnuts (Rivnuts) with a part number suffix of SZ – We are reducing our stocks of non compliant product and replacing with a Cr3 (Trivalent) plated product. All parts supplied with a Yellow/Gold finish are not RoHS compliant; parts supplied with a Silver finish are RoHS compliant and offer the same if not superior corrosion protection. Please specify during enquiry or at time of order if you require RoHS compliant parts.

 

All Cagenuts manufactured after 1 st January 2006 are RoHS compliant. We are in the process of reducing our old stocks of non compliant product and replacing with a Cr3 (Trivalent) plated product - Please specify during enquiry or at time of order if you require RoHS compliant parts.

 

All Steel Zinc Plated Parts with a part number suffix ZC6 or GC6 or SZ6 are not RoHS compliant as they have Cr6 (Hexavalent) based finishes.

 

All Stainless Steel parts with a part number suffix A2, A4, 400 or GS are RoHS Compliant.

 

All Aluminium parts with a part number suffix AL or GA are RoHS compliant.

 

All Brass parts with a part number suffix GB or B are RoHS compliant.

 

All Phosphor Bronze parts are RoHS compliant.

 

All part numbers with an ET suffix (Electro Tin) are RoHS compliant.

 

 

Future Compliance

We will continue to monitor the situation regarding RoHS, WEEE and ELV to ensure that we are able to support our customers with compliant products into the future.

 

For any help or enquiry into the compliance of any of our products please contact our technical sales department.

 

Tony Mortlock

Managing Director

 

 

You can download a PDF version of this statement here (right click and select "save as")

 

If you have any specific technical enquiry the contact our sales office on +44 (0)1302 836010 or by email technical@npfasteners.com