RoHS Compliance

Legal basis for KEKO VARICON activities related to hazardous substances are:

• DIRECTIVE 2002/95/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27th January 2003 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS)

  “Member States shall ensure that, from 1st July 2006, new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market does not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)”

• DIRECTIVE 2000/53/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18th September 2000 on end-of life vehicles (ELV)

  “This Directive lays down measures which aim, as a first priority, at the prevention of waste from vehicles and, in addition, at the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of end-of life vehicles and their components so as to reduce the disposal of waste, ...”

• DIRECTIVE 2002/96/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 January 2003 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)

  “The purpose of this Directive is, as a first priority, the prevention of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), and in addition, the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of such wastes so as to reduce the disposal of waste.“

In case above directives, do not give clear definitions and instructions, KEKO VARICON takes into account guidance on their implementation issued by:

• ORGALIME - European federation speaks for 33 trade federations (such as AeA Europe-EICTA-ESIA-JBCE-CECED) representing some 130,000 companies in mechanical, electrical, electronic and metal industry of 23 European countries.
   
• GASG – Global Automotive Stakeholders Group, where the biggest automobile manufacturers such as Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Opel, Porsche, VW, Volvo and others declare their requirements regarding ELV and RoHS though IMDS (International Material Data System) standards and GADSL (Global Automotive Declarable Substance List).

Keko Varicon:

• Follows Orgalime proposal of 11th of October 2004 and uses he following technical definitions:
  1. maximum concentration limit of the banned substance is determined at the homogenous material level
  2. homogenous material is defined as unit that cannot be mechanically disjoint in a single materials, without destroying the function of the part when it is removed; mechanically disjoint is defined as dismantling of a unit by simple processes (such as screwing, disconnecting and/or desoldering) using ordinary tools (i.e. not applying chemicals, cutting, grinding and/or polishing) without destroying the function of the unit.
• defines concentration of hazardous materials at the level of component as a whole.
• reports to IMDS upon customer requirement.