Folks,
I'm a little later than I wanted to be on this topic, but I have been preparing for and an now attending and presenting at the IPC/SolderTech Malmo RoHS Workshop. The topic? China has published their long awaited RoHS catalog of devices covered under their version of RoHS. The catlog covers many items that are clearly exempt from the EU RoHS, such as some medical devices and some products that may be exempt from EU RoHS such as stencil printers and electronic measuring equipment.
The other challenging aspect of China RoHS is that it takes effect on 1 March 2007. So companies that thought they had no RoHS worries in the EU, now have them in China. I see this as especially hard for our electronic assembly equipment colleagues. Much of their business is in China and March 1 is only 10 months away.
Another interesting aspect of China RoHS is that the Chinese require products that are put on their market to be analyzed by one of 18 Chinese labs. Hmmmmm.....those rascals!
Cheers,
Dr. Ron