RoHS & WEEE Compliance

The European Union has passed “Directive 2002/95/EC Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances” (RoHS) and “Directive 2002/96/EC Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” (WEEE) with regards to electrical and electronic equipment. Both directives are scheduled to be implemented on July 1, 2006.

The WEEE directive encourages manufacturers to produce environmentally friendly products and requires them to provide collection, recycling and environmentally safe disposal at the end of product life. AstroNova is compliant with the WEEE directive.

The RoHS directive is a counterpart to the WEEE regulations with exemptions for specific medical and test equipment. RoHS requires the elimination or reduction of six restricted substances: Lead, Cadmium, Hexavalent Chromium, Mercury, Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB), and Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether (PBDE).

While working towards 100% compliance to the RoHS directive, AstroNova’s Test & Measurement Group is taking the “monitoring and control” instruments exemption stated in RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC Article 1, section 1 and WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC Annex 1A, category nine.

AstroNova considers the impact of our products on the environment from design concept to final production, and has every intention of meeting the RoHS directive even though our products are exempt.

The company has been planning for these new requirements, and is investing considerable manufacturing and intellectual capital to achieve RoHS compliance. AstroNova continues to work with our raw material vendors to assure conformity of sub assemblies used in our products.

The RoHS exemption has been listed for reference.

RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC Article 2, Section 1
Article 2
Scope
1. Without prejudice to Article 6, this Directive shall apply to electrical and electronic equipment falling under the categories 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 set out in Annex IA to Directive No 2002/96/EC (WEEE) and to electric light bulbs, and luminaries in households.

WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC Article 2, Section 1
Annex 1A: Category 9
Monitoring and control instruments
“Other monitoring and control instruments used in industrial installations”