At Chassis Plans, our primary concern is to provide our customers with the best and most reliable industrial computer systems, rackmount LCDs, single board computers, system host boards, option cards and backplanes. We will continue to do this while meeting all international and domestic environmental regulatory standards.

Specifically, in the first quarter of 2006 Chassis Plans will begin shipping versions of our products that meet the “Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 27 January 2003 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment,” commonly referred to as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and it's companion, “Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 27 January 2003 on waste electrical and electronic equipment,” commonly referred to as WEEE.

Since 2004 Chassis Plans has been actively engaged in developing the engineering and manufacturing procedures and processes that address RoHS and WEEE product compliance.

1.	Begin shipping RoHS and WEEE certified products in the first quarter of 2006.
2.	RoHS certified Chassis Plans products are manufactured using the industry standard SAC (Tin-Silver-Copper) alloy currently offered by the major solder paste manufacturers.
3.	Chassis Plans will no longer offer, except to military customers, sheet metal products finished in "gold zinc".
4.	Chassis Plans will continue to offer both non-RoHS and RoHS certified products.
5.	Chassis Plans identifies RoHS certified products by using a specific RoHS part number.
6.	Chassis Plans' RoHS and WEEE compliant products are marked with appropriate compliance identification labels.

Chassis Plans produces a variety of electrical and electronic sub-assemblies and end-user equipment for a wide variety of military and commercial applications. Most of the electronic system sub-assemblies produced by Chassis Plans are integrated into end-user equipment by our customers or by someone further along the supply chain. Based on the defined uses, Chassis Plans is not covered by the WEEE Directive. However, to assist our customers, Chassis Plans will accept the return of any Chassis Plans equipment and process this using an approved recycling agent. Chassis Plans may charge a fee for this service.

Although it is the responsibility of the end-use equipment producer to comply with the RoHS Directive - Chassis Plans will support customers by providing RoHS compliant options for many existing products and new products. We will also maintain normal supplies of lead-based products for customers using our products in RoHS exempt OEM products and products outside the scope of the RoHS Directive for the foreseeable future – this will avoid re-approving your product with lead-free boards.

Contact us if you have any questions or require further assistance and thank you for choosing Chassis Plans' products.

RoHs compliance Directive 2002/95/EC - Effective July 1, 2006

The RoHS Directive applies to end-user electrical and electronic equipment (EEEE) and sets maximum acceptable levels of 6 substances within the composition of the product – lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium and both polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. It says that Member States shall ensure that, from July 1, 2006, new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market does not contain excessive levels of these compounds.

To meet this directive, all components within a product must be examined to assess levels of restricted substances. Chassis Plans can provide a Materials Declaration Form for any RoHS compliant product option on request.

WEEE compliance Directive 2002/99/EC - Effective August 13, 2005

The WEEE Directive, effective August 13, 2005, is essentially environmental legislation intended to reduce the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) being dumped in landfill sites. It aims to make the producer responsible for WEEE and encourage the recycling and re-use of EEE at the end of its useful life. The WEEE Directive defines 10 categories of end-user equipment which are covered by the Directive and provides guidelines for recycling targets.


Applicability

It is the responsibility of the company placing the electrical or electronic equipment (EEE) onto the market (the producer) to decide if they are covered by the scope of the Directives. The producer is defined as the manufacturer, distributor or importer of the equipment within the European Union. These two European Directives affect producers of certain items of electrical and electronic equipment. In summary, it affects products included within the following categories of equipment (except where specified):

• IT and telecommunications equipment (some use of lead is exempt)
• Medical devices (excluded from RoHS Directive)
• Monitoring and control instruments (excluded from RoHS Directive)
• Automatic dispensers
• Large household appliances
• Small household appliances
• Consumer equipment
• Lighting equipment
• Electrical and electronic tools (excludes large scale stationary tools/machines)
• Toys, leisure and sports equipment

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in the UK has played a major part in the development and implementation of both the RoHS and WEEE Directives. The DTI web site includes a non-statutory guidance document for these Directives. The following decision trees are taken from th
e guidance notes and are helpful in assessing whether your product is covered by the RoHS and WEEE Directives.

RoHS Decision Tree - PDF
WEEE Decision Tree - PDF

Exemptions

The two major types of equipment which fall outside the scope of both the WEEE and RoHS Directives are:

Fixed Installation - this is defined by the European Commission as, a combination of several items of equipment, systems, finished products and/or components assembled and/or erected by an assembler/installer at a given place to operate together in an expected environment to perform a specific task, but not intended to be placed onto the market as a single functional or commercial unit.

Large-scale Stationary Industrial tool/machine – this is a specific exclusion within product category 6 - electrical and electronic tools. It is defined by the European Commission as, a machine or system, consisting of a combination of equipment, systems or products, each of which is designed to be used in industry only, permanently fixed and installed by professionals at a given place in an industrial machine or in an industrial building to perform a specific task.

[The WEEE Directive excludes these items because it is not practical to identify a single responsible party for disposal and recycling. The RoHS Directive excludes them on the grounds of consistency with the WEEE Directive.]

In addition to these, equipment described as monitoring and control instruments (such as industrial control panels and remote monitoring systems) and medical devices (including analyzers, radiotherapy equipment & laboratory equipment) are categories defined in the WEEE Directive which are specifically excluded from the RoHS Directive.

Finally, equipment used for servers, storage/storage array and telecommunications infrastructure (switching, routers and gateways) is covered by the RoHS Directive but, may use lead in solder (the limits for the other 5 substances must comply). This exemption has been introduced to allow lead in solders for professional, high reliability applications for which viable lead-free alternatives have not been identified. This category is informally referred to RoHS-5.

In brief, other items outside the scope of the RoHS Directive include:

• specialized military systems
• avionics systems
• equipment for national security
• equipment built for own use (hobbyist)
• spares for products placed onto the market before July 1st, 2006
• equipment for capacity expansion or upgrades on product placed onto the market before July 1st, 2006
  

Resources

These Directives are complex and these guidance notes are issued for general information only. Professional advice should always be sought to take account of individual circumstances. Chassis Plans cannot accept responsibility for actions taken on the basis of these notes alone.

Additional information is available from a wide variety of sources.

WEEE Directive 2002-96-EC (pdf, 288KB)
RoHS Directive 2002-95-EC (pdf, 115KB)
First Amendment (pdf, 40KB)
Second Amendment (pdf, 36KB)

IPC - Serving the Printed Circuit Board and electronics Assembly Industries
RoHS Guidance November05 Final.pdf - UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)
Main UK RoHS Site
RoHS and WEEE Frequently Asked Questions - European Commission
Action to Take on WEEE and RoHS - Electronicsweekly.com
Step-By-Step Guide to Compliance w/ RoHS Directive - Farnell in One
RoSHwell.com - News, Tips, Tools for RoHS-WEEE Compliance