The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union approved on January 27 the 2003 directive 2002/95/CE named by RoHS on the limitation of the use of certain dangerous substances in electric and electronic components. This new directive requires that the new electric and electronic components put on the market after July 1st 2006 reduce the use of six dangerous substances to minimum acceptable levels.

Prohibited substances and thresholds tolerated in homogeneous materials:

Lead (Pb) < 0,1 % in weight (1000 ppm) Mercury (Hg) < 0,1 % in weight (1000 ppm) Cadmium (Cd) < 0,01 % in weight (100 ppm) Hexavalent crhromium (Cr) < 0,1 % in weight (1000 ppm) Polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) < 0,1 % in weight (1000 ppm) Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) < 0,1 % in weight (1000 ppm)

An homogeneous material is mechanically indissociable by unscrewing, cutting, crushing, abrasing ...
Are considered out of the field of application of the directive military, automobile, space equipment and aeronautics equipments, medical equipments are subject to exemptions.

On January 27, 2003 the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union also approved the directive 2002/96/CE named by WEEE. This directive encourages and fixed specific criteria applicable to the collection, the handling and the waste of recycling electric and electronic equipments and precise that:

The product should not be thrown in the household refuse The product must be returned to a collection point suitable for the treatment, valorization, the recycling of EEE or brought back to the distributor Manufacturers mark EEE products with the WEEE symbol : trash bin with "X"

These two directives have an impact on all the electronics industry, and on all the levels, from the manufacturer, retail stores, to distributor and OEM. ACKSYS is concerned in the respect of the environment and aims at supporting these ecological steps:

90% of our packing materials can be recycled   All our printed circuits are compliant with the RoHS directive since 1st of January 2006 ACKSYS products don't use Mercury (Hg) nor Cadmium (Cd) The products manufactured after July 1 2006 will be in conformity with the RoHS directive except for the MCX range of products which are intended for the military and aeronautics applications The new designs of products are carried out in conformity with the requirements of the RoHS directive

To learn more about the RoHS directive ... To lear more about the WEEE directive ...