On June 4, 2015, the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) issued RoHS2.0 Revised Directive (EU) 2015/863, officially including DEHP, BBP, DBP, and DIBP in the list of restricted substances in Appendix II. As of now, there are ten mandatory controlled substances in Appendix II. Please refer to the table below for details:

Restricted substance limit (mass fraction)

Lead (Pb) 0.1%

Mercury (Hg) 0.1%

Cadmium (Cd) 0.01%

Hexavalent chromium (Cr VI) 0.1%

Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) 0.1%

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) 0.1%

Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) 0.1%

Tolylbutyl phthalate (BBP) 0.1%

Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) 0.1%

Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP) 0.1%

After the issuance of this revised directive, EU member states are required to translate it into national regulations and implement it before December 31, 2016. And starting from July 22, 2019, all electronic and electrical products exported to Europe (excluding medical and monitoring equipment) must meet this restriction requirement; Starting from July 22, 2021, medical equipment (including in vitro medical equipment) and monitoring equipment (including industrial monitoring equipment) will also be included in this control scope. In addition, toy products that are already under the control of Article 51 of Annex XVII of REACH will not be subject to the control of DEHP, BBP, and DBP in this directive.

Note:

1、 Implementation dates for the control of four new phthalates:

Considering that it takes some time for enterprises to meet the new requirements for harmful substances, (EU) 2015/863 stipulates a corresponding transition period: all electronic and electrical products (excluding medical equipment and monitoring instruments) must meet the new requirements from July 22, 2019, and medical equipment and monitoring instruments must meet the new requirements from July 22, 2021.

2、 Interpretation of RoHS instruction changes:

1. The limit requirements of DEHP, BBP, DBP, and DIBP do not apply to cables sold in the market before July 22, 2019, or spare parts used for maintenance, reuse, and functional upgrades of electronic and electrical equipment (EEE), or performance upgrades. They also do not apply to medical and monitoring equipment sold in the market before July 22, 2021.

2. The limit requirements for DEHP, BBP, and DBP do not apply to toys that have already been subject to the restrictions on DEHP, BBP, and DBP in Article 51 of Annex XVII of EU Regulation No 1907/2006 (REACH).

3. The removal of hexabromocyclododecane HBCDD from previous RoHS 2.0 is due to the European Commission's belief that this substance does not fall within the scope of the RoHS Directive and is already within the scope of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants; According to a large amount of testing data from testing institutions, phthalate esters are widely used as plasticizers in electronic and electrical products, and may exist in various materials such as wires and cables, plastics, paint and ink. Polyvinyl chloride material (PVC) is currently a severely affected area for materials containing phthalates, and should be of great concern to enterprises. PVC material is still widely used in the material industry, and more companies have not made improvements in advance due to the increased cost of replacing PVC material. According to the recent RoHS implementation time, although companies still have 3 years to respond to this RoHS change, considering the supply chain transmission and process improvement of electronic products, this will take some time, Some companies may shorten the time frame for suppliers to restrict the use of uniform materials in their products. Improving the process early and finding new environmentally friendly plasticizers as substitutes will become the best solution to address the new requirements of RoHS for phthalates.

3、 Regarding ROHS' Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electronic and Electrical Equipment '

RoHS is a mandatory standard established by EU legislation, and its full name is the 'Restriction of Hazardous Substances'. This standard has been officially implemented since July 1, 2006, mainly used to standardize the materials and process standards of electronic and electrical products, making them more conducive to human health and environmental protection.

The first time people noticed that electrical and electronic equipment contained heavy metals that were harmful to human health was when cadmium was discovered in the cables of a batch of game consoles sold in the Netherlands in 2000. In fact, the soldering tin and printing ink used extensively in the production of electrical and electronic products contain harmful heavy metals such as lead.

Subsequently, the European Parliament issued Resolution 2002/95/EC in 2002, which referred to the 'Restriction of the use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment' directive. The RoHS Directive (2002/95/EC) stipulates that from July 1, 2006, new electrical and electronic equipment products launched on the European Union market shall not contain six harmful substances: lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), hexavalent chromium (Cr6+), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).

Starting from January 3, 2013, Directive 2002/95/EC will be abolished, and allies must update Directive 2011/65/EU to local law by January 2, 2013. The main content of 2011/65/EU is summarized as follows:

1. Product scope, clarifying the control scope and related definitions of the directive, expanding the control product scope to all electronic and electrical equipment except for special exemptions, including Class 8 medical equipment and Class 9 product monitoring equipment exempted by 2002/95/EC; Class 11 products: All other electronic and electrical equipment, including cables and other components, not covered by Class 1-10 products.

2. Restricted substances, although no new restricted substances have been added, four toxic and harmful substances (DIBP, DEHP, DBP, and BBP) have been selected as candidates for restricted substances.

3. CE marking requires the inclusion of ROHS compliance for electronic and electrical equipment in CE marking requirements. Producers should ensure that their products comply with ROHS and prepare corresponding declarations and technical documents when posting CE markings.

4. Transition period regulations: In order to provide sufficient time for manufacturers newly included in ROHS 2.0 controlled products to comply with the requirements of the directive, ROHS 2.0 has set a transition period for related products.

On June 4, 2015, the Official Journal of the European Union issued Directive 2015/863/EU, which added four phthalate ester substances to Annex II of the RoHS2.0 Directive (i.e. restricted substance list). These four substances are di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), and diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP). At this point, the list of restricted substances in Annex II of the ROHS2.0 directive has been officially updated to 10 items.

More information:Learn more about ROHS