WEEE and RoHS Compliance

WEEE – from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills Website “The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) aims to minimise the impact of electrical and electronic goods on the environment, by increasing re-use and recycling and reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfill. It seeks to achieve this by making producers responsible for financing the collection, treatment, and recovery of waste electrical equipment, and by obliging distributors to allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge.”

GBE recognises the importance of this legislation, given the current environmental concerns, however they also realise the extra logistical and cost burden this places on the producers of WEEE. In order to address this, GBE has registered with a Producer Compliance Scheme, with B2B Compliance, in order to offer a fully compliant manufacturing and after-sales service. GBE can manufacture and support any given contract to adhere to the WEEE directive, thus reducing the administrative burden on our customers. GBE can also offer advice on adherence to the scheme. GBE’s Producer Registration Number - WEE/GD0204VX

RoHS – GBE offered manufacturing services fully compliant to the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive (2002/95/EC) since the regulation came to force on 1st July 2006. The service offered has included assisting our customers with RoHS compliant designs for products that were manufactured prior to 1st July 2006 and for products being placed on the market post the enforcement date. For more details on the directive, please see www.rohs.gov.uk.

GBE’s experienced manufacturing team carried out extensive research into the most suitable lead free materials and new equipment to enable them to continue to manufacture to their previous high standards under the constrains of the RoHS directive. The reason for this has been driven by the various issues including:-

* Higher melting temperatures of lead free solder
* Poor wetting and spreading properties of solder
* Bridging and other solder defects
* Dull grainy finish, making inspection more difficult

GBE prepared a paper on the potential impact of WEEE and RoHS to SMEs.