ROHS compliance

[Pack34]

Is there a need to send off the boards to a third party for deconstruction to ensure ROHS compliance or is it one of those things that's self certifying?

As long as everything on the BOM is ROHS and the boards were assembled with the correct materials, everything should be fine, correct? Or do I really need to send a sample to a lab so they can melt it down to get some sort of certificate.

[AndyC_772]

Standard practice would be to prescribe to your contract manufacturer that the complete board assembly must be RoHS compliant. Request a certificate of conformity with each shipment.

Provided you trust your CEM, and the parts you've specified are indeed the correct RoHS compliant parts, you'd have a good case that you've done your due diligence. If it turns out that one of your products does get impounded, inspected and found non-compliant, you have a reasonable defence.

Arguably, there's not much more you can do. Just because one sample of a product is compliant, doesn't mean the next batch will be, so sending one to a lab to be ground into powder and tested is no guarantee of ongoing compliance.

[calexanian]

If you are building the boards yourself you just need to keep your documentation from your suppliers that the parts are compliant. Many parts are actually just labeled now. Your PCB's should be marked as lead free, and of course use lead free solder and you can self label your device as lead free or compliant. ROHS also includes other things such as plating processes and such so be sure you investigate that. Make sure the parts are compliant and not just lead free. Apart from that here in the US there is no requirement to have any third party testing. Some areas of Europe do require some further things. We don't sell there so I can't  provide details. Oh, and of course everything in Europe must have CE testing apart from very very specialized low quantity specialty products. If its a low voltage or battery powered device nobody really cares in the US. Above 42 volts potential most things will require some kind of compliance be it UPC, CSA (Now available for both Canada and the US, UL or ETL, etc. That is once again unless it is an extremely specialized thing.

[Geri]

you didnt specified what ecsactly you are doing, and how you are doing. i am not a lawyer, but you should not care about it until the point you start to mass-manufacture it in corporative manners. (by you shout not care, i meant, it should not shock people to death obviously). from that point you will have to worry about all the regulations, and to be precize, to regulations all contry individually have, becouse they may seem to be just compatible while even being in the same economic blocks, but in the reality its very divergent. if not you are directly the manufacturer and/or the seller, obtaining this compilance is not directly your task (besides the fact that you are may restrict yourself to comply with the limitations where it is your task).

for example in my contry they dont care what certifications are glued into the device or to the box, its totally ignored, instead the authorities randomly test random devices by random sampling from random manufacturers to check if they comply with the basic standards and laws, or not. such as it must be able to have electric shock protection up to a given sized electric spark, etc. if it not complys, then its being pulled off from the market, and a warning will be issued against using and buying such device. but this will be totally different from contry by contry.

so maybe just by trying to comply a logo you missing the point.

[Pack34]

We're making this in quantity and shipping to North America and Europe.

We already have the CE mark squared away, almost to ISO, just need to square off ROHS on my end.

We specify ROHS to the manufacturer and all of the components and connectors are ROHS, so are the enclosures.

[JPortici]

AFAIK no further test is needed. your manufacturer is certified RoHS? if someone ask, ask them for documentation. all parts are RoHS or still under exception (for some reason)? if asked, ask the mfgr for documentation

[calexanian]

Yes. keep documentation on all materials.