The RoHS exemptions that are listed with no expiry date in Annex III of the EU RoHS Directive (2011/65/EU) will automatically expire on July 21, 2016 for most electrical and electronic equipment unless a manufacturer or industry association comes forward with an application to renew the exemption.
Several of the Annex III exemptions are used very broadly in electronic components and systems. This includes exemption 7(c)-I “Electrical and electronic components containing lead in a glass or ceramic other than dielectric ceramic in capacitors, e.g. piezoelectronic devices, or in a glass or ceramic matrix compound”, 7(c) -II “Lead in dielectric ceramic in capacitors for a rated voltage of 125 V AC or 250 V DC or higher” and the 6(a), 6(b), and 6(c) exemptions that allow lead to be used in certain metal alloys.
Lead in Communication Products and Servers
For communication equipment and computer server, exemption 7(b) “Lead in solders for servers, storage and storage array systems, network infrastructure equipment for switching, signaling, transmission, and network management for telecommunications” is still heavily used by many manufacturers, particularly for complex printed circuit boards using large BGA devices. Significantly development work has been underway over the past decade to develop new design and soldering materials and techniques to improve the long-term reliability of these products using PB-free solders. Many manufacturers have been progressively shifting their designs to Pb-free components and soldering processes. It appears that the industry (especially large OEMs) feels that this exemption may no longer be required and it may be time to allow the exemption to expire.
However, there are still numerous products on the market using Pb solders and significant design and RoHS assessment effort will be needed to bring these and successive products into RoHS compliance for 2016.
Exemption Renewal Requests
Under the original RoHS Directive, the EU Commission would initiate studies and consultations to assess each of the exemptions and determine which required renewal and which could be allowed to expire. However, under RoHS 2, responsibility for initiating this process and providing sufficient evidence for continuing an exemption has been assigned to industry. A stakeholder (manufacturer or industry association) must submit a renewal request according to RoHS 2 Article 5 (3).
The exemption renewal request must be made at least 18 months before the exemption expires. This means that requests for renewal of Annex III exemptions must be made within the next six months; otherwise the exemptions may no longer be used in Category 1-7, and 10 products. This comes directly from the RoHS 2 Directive, Article 5, paragraph 2:
Measures adopted in accordance with point (a) of paragraph 1 shall, for categories 1 to 7, 10 and 11 of Annex I, have a validity period of up to 5 years and, for categories 8 and 9 of Annex I, a validity period of up to 7 years. The validity periods are to be decided on a case-by-case basis and may be renewed.
The validity of the exemptions for Category 8 (medical devices) and 9 (monitoring and control instruments) products is 7 years from the date that the products must be RoHS compliant; therefore these may continue to leverage the exemptions for a few more years.
To track regulatory changes including the RoHS exemptions and for support on RoHS compliance process contact ECD Compliance.