What test methods are used to assess RoHS compliance?
Standard test methods are under development in some areas, but there are few yet that are directly applicable to compliance assessment. The EU has left the methods for assessing compliance up to the Member States which have not given out much detail as to how they will test products for compliance other than that hand held X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) seems to be popular despite severe limitations when applied to finished goods testing. Meanwhile, many labs are adapting current tests to determine concentrations of RoHS substances in materials. Besides XRF, Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES), Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (CVAAS), Direct Mercury Analysis (DMA), UV-VIS, GC-MS, and other techniques are currently being used. Be aware, many labs are applying EPA and other environmental test methods to Declarable Substance testing. These methods are rarely, if ever, adequate for properly analyzing finished goods such as metals and plastics. See our arti
Standard test methods are under development in some areas, but there are few yet that are directly applicable to compliance assessment. The EU has left the methods for assessing compliance up to the Member States which have not given out much detail as to how they will test products for compliance other than that hand held X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) seems to be popular despite severe limitations when applied to finished goods testing. Meanwhile, many labs are adapting current tests to determine concentrations of RoHS substances in materials. Besides XRF, Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES), Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (CVAAS), Direct Mercury Analysis (DMA), UV-VIS, GC-MS, and other techniques are currently being used. Be aware, many labs are applying EPA and other environmental test methods to Declarable Substance testing. These methods are rarely, if ever, adequate for properly analyzing finished goods such as metals and plastics.
