How to show RoHS compliance (product label, website)

[Martin F]

Hi there,

We sell a data logger that is made wholly of RoHS compliant components and with RoHS compliant production processes.
This is something we can fairly easily document, but we're a bit unsure what the steps are to be "correctly certified" through self certification - and the online help is rather confusing.

Any tips on the following would be great!
1) Do we need to do any formal steps to be legally allowed to include a RoHS sticker on our products?
2) We sell also in the EU - should we in that case instead/also consider the WEEE symbol and certification? A bit unsure if this goes instead of RoHS or in parallel.
3) Finally, there seem to be many RoHS logos/symbols around - do we just pick one we like or is there a "latest & greatest"?

Thank you!

Best,
Martin

[stmdude]

Wow, you've stepped into a quite complex subject..

I'll try to help you as well as I can..

1) RoHS can be self-certified, and that is indeed how most companies do it. I.e, if you're sure you're RoHS compliant, you need to produce a "Self declaration" document that specifies that you've either measured or know about the substances in all parts of the product, and that the 10 substances that the RoHS covers are either not present or below the threshold limits.
Example self-declarations:
http://www.hitachi-america.us/supportingdocs/forbus/inverters/Support/hitachi-self-declaration-for-rohs-compliance.pdf
https://www.pickeringtest.com/content/pdf/rohs-60-102-103.pdf
( Note: Both of these are older documents, and there are now 10 substances )

2) Yes, you need to consider WEE as well when selling a product in Europe. I'm not terribly familiar with WEE, though.

3) I don't know of an official RoHS logo. In fact, you're not required to even put the logo on your product. (RoHS is still required though. You still need to do the self-certification if you're selling in the EU)

Also, don't forget about CE markings. They're also commonly self-certified (unless your device doesn't fall under the Low-voltage directive, then people tend to prefer external test-houses).

[peter-h]

As with the American Conflict Minerals initiative, full due diligence is almost impossible, so almost everybody self certifies.

If you buy components from the mainstream distributors (Avnet etc) then they will be ROHS compliant and if you use lead-free solder then you are done.

REACH is not an issue unless you sell the said chemicals (basically).

WEEE nobody cares about these days.

[Neilm]

If you are selling in the EU, you want the crossed out bin for the WEEE directive. RoHS is covered by the CE mark that you will need (low voltage directive, EMC directive WEEE directive etc.)

[Mattylad]

ISTR If you are using the WEEE wheely bin it needs the crossed out bin WITH the bar underneath, unless you also have the date of manufacture displayed in which case you can omit the bar underneath the bin.

The bar was used to denote a date (Aug 2005) it was made after, which has long passed so it is a feature of the logo.

http://www.weeeregistration.com/symbol-for-the-marking-of-eee-electrical-and-electronic-equipment.html

And some people Do still care about it, its just that it is not considered a selling feature for Europe whereas lead free is as that generally gets insisted upon despite both being required.