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ESB
November 16, 2005
If you need a replacement part for equipment that is already in place before the July 1, 2006 RoHS deadline for green parts, you’re exempt, right? The European Union’s Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) applies to electronics products sold in Europe next summer, but it doesn’t govern replacement parts. Those parts will take care of themselves. At some point, all of the equipment those parts fit in will be green, and so will the replacement parts. In the meantime, replacement engineers don’t have to worry about compliant parts.
That idea is good in theory, but in actuality, the replacement parts industry is going through its own upheaval. “MRO [maintenance, repair and operation] engineers are exempt from the RoHS legislation, but it’s not like they’re off scott free,” says Paul Tallentire, president of Chicago-based Newark InOne, one of the largest MRO parts distributors. “These engineers are working in a global marketplace, and the products they’ve been purchasing will change.”
A good portion of military and MRO engineers have ignored the RoHS conversion because they are exempt from the European Union restrictions. RoHS exemptions include the defense industry, the medical industry, portions of the telecommunications industry, and replacement parts. When asked if they intend to change their buying habits, many of the engineers in those exempt industries say no. Yet, a good portion of their suppliers are shifting their production to compliant parts.
Some parts manufacturers claim they intend to keep producing non-compliant parts as well as compliant parts, but that isn’t likely to continue for long, since the market for the non-compliant parts will shrink considerably over the next year as product manufacturers shift to compliant parts.
Tallentire notes that because of the massive shift to compliant parts, even exempt parts will change as component manufacturers change the bulk of their production to RoHS-compliant versions of their components. “For the MRO maintenance engineer, the products they’ve purchased in the past will change,” says Tallentire. “Some will become obsolete or not available, while others will change to meet the RoHS directive.” He notes that solder will change in most parts. “People buying parts, even MRO parts, will have to be careful about the maximum reflow temperature.” For RoHS-compliant parts, the reflow temperature will change, and this will likely affect exempt parts just as it does non-exempt parts. “Engineers will have to think about the physical characteristics of the new compliant parts, specifically the solder-ability of those products,” says Tallentire.
Over the next year, it may be hard to tell whether a part has changed or not, as many suppliers initially intend to stock both compliant and non-compliant versions of their components. Those buyers who work with distributors will get some help through the maze of compliant and non-compliant parts. “When a component manufacturer has decided to keep a compliant and non-compliant product, we will stock both, and we will make it clear whether the part is compliant or not,” says Tallentire. “We’ve separated our compliant parts from our non-compliant parts.” Newark InOne maintains separate warehouses for complaint parts to reduce the risk of shipping the wrong version of a part.
Tallentire notes that the biggest challenge in tracking parts now is not compliant parts, but non-compliant parts. “There is good communication about whether the compliant parts are available, but suppliers are not making it clear if the non-compliant version of the part is available,” says Tallentire. To help customers sort through compliant and non-compliant versions of components, Newark InOne created a system to track individual versions of parts. “We’ve developed cross references between compliant and non-compliant versions,” says Tallentire. “If there is a compliant part available, you can compare its physical characteristics to the non-compliant version and you can also get the data on the two versions of the part.”
The cross reference will help customers determine whether a complaint part will function in the same way as the non-compliant part. The data becomes especially critical if the non-compliant part is no longer available. “Without that data, you can’t tell whether the compliant part will work as well as the non-compliant part has worked,” says Tallentire.
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