Special Identification Marks for Electrical Products Sold in Europe

The Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) is the European Community directive 2002/95/EC that draws its scope from the WEEE directive. It applies to products sold in the European Union market on or after July 1, 2006. This directive has been in force since 2003 and took effect in 2006. (Note that this was recast in 2011 and became effective in January 2013 as directive 2011/65/EU, or RoHS 2.)

The RoHS directive aims to minimize the environmental impact of waste electrical and electronic equipment by reducing the quantities of four heavy metals and two brominated flame retardants that may be a part of their construction.

Products falling under this directive may not contain more than the specified RoHS limits of the following six substances:

• Lead (Pb)
• Cadmium (Cd)
• Mercury (Hg)
• Hexavalent chromium (Hex-Cr)
• Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)

In addition, according to Delegated Directive 2015/863 published in June 2015, the following four phthalate substances are to be added to the RoHS directive’s list of restricted substances:

• Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)
• Butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP)
• Dibutyl phthalate (DBP)
• Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP)

Electrical and electronic equipment must comply with these additional substance restrictions – and follow the maximum concentration limits specified – by July 22, 2019. Medical devices and monitoring and control instruments must comply by July 22, 2021.

This directive is important to you, the product manufacturer, if your products contain these elements or substances. When this is the case, those who import your products into the EU, those who export your products to other EU member states, and those who re-brand your products for resale must conform to the RoHS directive’s requirements.

Identify Your Products

Like the WEEE, directive, the RoHS directive makes a lot of sense from a corporate social responsibility perspective. The use of hazardous materials in products should be limited as much as possible so people and the environment are not harmed. Clarion’s role in helping you fulfill the RoHS directive is that we can supply you with the marks used to identify that your products are in compliance with the directive.

The labels fall into one of two categories:

• A CE mark indicating that none of the RoHS restricted materials exist in your product, or
• Specific marks for each of the regulated materials with numbers that indicate the amount of each material your product contains.

Our RoHS labels communicate all of the information required by the directive; they’re perfectly designed to comply with the directive’s very specific graphical nomenclature. We carry these marks in a variety of sizes and we use the best in labeling materials to assure that these important identifiers don’t fall off, peel, fade or fail during the course of your product’s useful life.