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What are the hazardous substances banned by the RoHS Directive?
How Are Eaton Products Affected by the RoHS Directive?
Do WEEE and RoHS Affect Eaton Products For Consumer Electronics?
Will These Changes Affect Product Performance Characteristics?
How Can I Tell If A Catalog Number Is In Compliance? Are The Catalog Numbers Changing?
Will I have Any Problems With My Current Inventory?
Is Eaton Issuing Product Compliance Notifications?
What If A RoHS Compliant Product Is Not Available For My Application?
The substances banned by the RoHS Directive are:
However, in the Annex of the RoHS Directive does make allowances for the "Applications of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, which are exempted from the requirements of Article 4(1)."
If the Eaton product is a component of electrical or electronic equipment that falls under the WEEE Directive's Scope, then the Eaton product must be free of the hazardous materials specified in RoHS. These are most likely to be products used in consumer electronics.
The vast majority of Eaton electrical UL and IEC power distribution, transportation and consumer replacement products are exempt as they fall outside the scope of the WEEE and, as a result, RoHS Directives.
These exempt products are primarily used in power distribution systems, stationary large-scale industrial tools or as replacements for existing products already on the market.
WEEE and RoHS are primarily aimed at eliminating hazardous substances from consumer electronics.
For the past two years Eaton has taken the necessary steps to revise the construction of these products for compliance. Most of these are certified by third party testing and the results are published in Material Composition Data (MCD) sheets, as well as in our Engineering Products Specification (EPS) sheets.
No, Eaton is committed to eliminating hazardous materials regardless of application or market. We've initiated a comprehensive review of all our product designs to substitute non-hazardous materials in to their construction wherever possible. These changes are being implemented on an on-going basis.
For the most part, these changes involve eliminating the lead-based solder from our fuses.
No. Our objective is to first and foremost maintain the reliability of all our products to provide their intended function as originally designed and manufactured. We fully intend to maintain all performance characteristics for our fuses, including their time-current curves and peak let-through curves.
To simplify the transition period (and to retain inventory systems already in place at Eaton and with our customers) we're keeping the current catalog numbering system for electrical, transportation and consumer replacement products. Compliance will be determined by a product's date code.
The only exception is that catalog numbers for a majority of electronic products now carry an "R" suffix to indicate RoHS compliance.
Unless you produce a finished consumer product specified in the WEEE Directive for sale in the European Community, your inventory is NOT affected by the implementation of either the RoHS or WEEE Directives. Under the Directives, fuses are exempt because they are:
Replacement parts - RoHS Directive, Article 2, Scope, Item 3 "This Directive does not apply to spare parts for the repair, or to the reuse, of electrical and electronic equipment put on the market before 1 July 2006."
Are part of large scale stationary industrial tools - WEEE Directive, Annex IA, Categories of electrical and electronic equipment covered by this Directive, item 6 "Electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large-scale stationary industrial tools)."
Are part of fixed installations - From the EC's Frequently Asked Questions on Directive 2002/95/EC on the Restriction of the Use of certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) and Directive 2002/96/EC on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), May 2005, Scope, Part 1.3. What is the criteria for determining whether a product falls under the WEEE Directive, Nr. 3 "Equipment which falls "under the categories set out in Annex I A" [WEEE Art 2.1 and Annex I] Excluded from category 6: large-scale stationary industrial tools "Large-scale stationary industrial tools" are machines or systems, consisting of a combination of equipment, systems, finished products and/or components, each of which is designed to be used in industry only, permanently fixed and installed by professionals at a given place in an industrial machinery or in an industrial building to perform a specific task. Not intended to be placed on the market as a single functional or commercial unit."
There should be no need to return or modify your existing inventory.
Communicating compliance with the banned substances in RoHS is a priority at Eaton. To determine the status of any specific Eaton product, go to the Catalog Number Detail search engine. It will provide you the latest compliance information and an option to print a compliance document for the specific catalog number queried.
If you need a Eaton product that is not yet RoHS compliant, click here to find a compliant substitution or submit a request for compliance.
