Saving the Environment—One Mandate at a Time
By Bob Hult, Bishop & Associates Inc.

The connector industry must juggle many competing interests in order to meet our goals in this rapidly changing world. We’re adjusting to deteriorating economic conditions, the increased costs of basic materials, and the loss of experienced employees due to layoffs and retirement, and there is still the need to address the expanding challenges of global environmental legislation. The introduction of the RoHS European Union directive three years ago had a significant impact on the connector industry, including the elimination of lead from the traditional tin-lead soldering and surface-finish process. After a period of experimentation, the connector industry settled on a pure tin finish on contacts. Debate continues about the choice of bright or matte tin, with some suppliers continuing to offer both. Concern about the potential of conductive tin “whiskers” shorting adjacent contacts remains the elephant in the room, but to date, the problem remains a potential threat to long-term reliability.

Select industries with products that typically have a long lifecycle, such as telecom, military, and storage equipment, have been able to maintain their exemptions. A recent update of the RoHS directive now includes previously exempted medical and instrumentation equipment as well. Enforcement of RoHS varies by each European Union (EU) member country and may include inspection at shipping points and on shelves. OEMs cannot tolerate the potential of being shut out of the European market and are insisting on the use of compliant components.

The objective of the Waste, Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive was focused on reducing the amount of hazardous materials being dumped in landfills, potentially contaminating the earth and water. It encourages the collection and recycling of e-waste, as well as encourages electronic equipment manufacturers to design their products to be compatible with recycling and reclaiming processes.

Not to be undone by European countries, China is in the process of developing their own environmental mandate applicable to electronic products intended for internal Chinese markets. To a large degree, China RoHS mimics much of the EU version, but the process of managing exactly how products will be tested, and those identified for export, is still a work in process. There is little new information being released about how China RoHS will be implemented, which likely reflects the complexity of the proposed mandate. At this point, only a labeling process that defines the status of equipment which contains offending material is required. Manufacturers of products that contain more than allowed levels of the identified materials must apply a label that estimates the period of time the product may be safely used. Industry groups have agreed on standardized product lifetimes that currently satisfy this requirement. The electronics industry is waiting for the publication of a catalog of products to be addressed by this standard, which is now expected sometime in 2009.

More recently the EU has expanded their effort to insure that the many thousands of chemicals that are being used in every aspect of our life do not harm the environment. The Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) regulations have begun the incredible task of registering over 30,000 chemicals in use today. Up to this point, industries were allowed to use any chemical until it was proven to cause harm. Under REACH, chemicals must be proven to cause no harm before they can be used. The initial step in the 850-page document requires manufacturers to collect data, and document every chemical used in their products. The priority for completing this task is based on the volume of materials manufactured or imported per year, with the highest-usage-substances to be addressed first. The next step will be to determine its impact on human health. It is unclear exactly how the toxicity of chemicals will be determined and how the cost of such extensive testing will be managed. Fifteen Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs) have been identified and may be entirely banned in the future if a reasonable substitute can be found. Observers expect the SVHC list to grow as test results become available.

The specific impact of these mandates on the connector industry has shifted from inspiring significant changes to product lines to requiring more of a documentation nightmare. Responding to RoHS required changing the chemistry and process control of plating baths. The higher reflow temperatures of pure tin also required changes in many plastic materials used to mold connector housings. Entirely new part numbers were established to clearly indicate RoHS compliancy. Electronic distributors were faced with a logistical challenge as their customers transitioned from leaded to lead-free assembly. The vast majority of products listed in catalogs today indicate RoHS compliance. Several suppliers have chosen to convert their entire product lines to lead-free, as maintaining two parallel product lines is a costly option. Other connector manufacturers selectively maintain both options to support customers that have won exemptions. Since it is the equipment manufacturer who is ultimately responsible for documenting RoHS compliance, OEMs are requiring component suppliers to provide certification of compliance documents. Standard compliance documents are often provided by each supplier on their website, but larger OEMs who anticipate future proliferation of environmental directives may require more extensive documentation using their own formats. Responding to these demands requires many hours of research and completion of a myriad of custom forms, adding cost to the bottom line.

The REACH program is becoming another example of a supply chain documentation issue. Connector manufacturers must insure that every chemical used in the manufacturing process has been registered. Given the global migration of the connector industry, this has become a huge task to identify the many sources of materials and processes they use. The full extent of REACH is not known, but as the degree of health hazard for each chemical is determined, connector manufacturers may be required to find alternative materials that could have different characteristics which must be identified and compensated for. Several European chemical suppliers have reportedly decided to terminate the manufacture of certain materials rather than go through the evaluation process.  Unlike RoHS, which is focused on eliminating a relatively few materials from specific product types, REACH extends the net to include all materials used in both the product as well as packaging of the product, a process that is expected to require 11 years to complete. The list of the 15 initial targeted substances is expected to grow as detailed health impact studies are completed.

A recent form of environmental activism being promoted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is adding a new channel of potency to the environmental protection movement. Greenpeace has a long record of environmental activism, addressing everything from protecting whales to advising against the use of soft toilet paper. They are now putting pressure on electronics equipment manufacturers to eliminate the use of halogenated materials, particularly in consumer electronic products.  Halogenated chemicals, such as bromine, are frequently added to plastics to boost its flame-retardant characteristics. The short lifetimes of consumer devices, including cell phones and personal computers, is generating immense quantities of e-waste, much of which is being exported to Third World countries for material reclamation.

The “reclaiming” process often takes the form of burning printed circuit boards and insulated wires in open fires. This low-temperature incineration process creates poisonous dioxins that pollute the air.

The Greenpeace Guide to Green Electronics rates specific equipment manufacturers according to the conformance to Greenpeace’s green objectives. These objectives include reducing the impact of toxic substances on the environment, recycling efforts to handle obsolete products, and reducing climate impact of operations and products. As the public becomes more aware of these issues, they are pressuring companies to increase the “greenness” of their products.

A number of global manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon and are surveying their supplier base to identify the use of halogenated materials with the intent to eliminate them. OEMs have begun using the “green” banner as a way to differentiate their products. Apple, for instance, is promoting itself as the manufacturer of the greenest laptop computers, although Greenpeace ranks the company quite low. The greatest impact on the connector industry may be in finding alternative flame retardants used in plastic connector housings and in cable assemblies where PVC insulation is a major component. Halogen-free plastics, such as LCP, are rated 94V0, but add considerable cost. Other alternative materials will require extensive testing to confirm performance with minimal changes to molds or manufacturing processes.

As one environmental and safety manager put it, the proliferation of these overlapping mandates has great potential for creating unintended consequences. The original intent of RoHS legislation was to reduce hazardous materials from our environment, but the increased reflow temperatures of tin solder joints has significantly increased the carbon footprint of PCB assemblers.

WEEE is intended to reduce e-waste and encourage recycling, but we are seeing more electronic waste being shipped to Third World countries where it is dumped or reclaimed using processes that expose unprotected workers to vast amounts of toxic fumes. The adoption of WEEE requires that new products must facilitate the ability to separate and reclaim materials at the product end-of-life, adding a new facet to the new product design process.

Industries exempted from these directives, such as military, telecom, and storage equipment, are scrambling to insure a supply of leaded parts. Sufficient demand has prompted some suppliers to offer both pure tin and tin/lead versions. When a specific connector is only available in pure tin, users have gone to the extra step of having the contact hot-tin/lead-dipped at a subcontractor. Interconnect systems Inc. is an example of a supplier who has created a niche market by offering the ability to add a tin/lead finish to RoHS-compliant components. They also offer re-balling of tin ball grid array devices. This has been a critical service in supporting the military commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) component program, but adds cost.  

The economic cost of the REACH program has not been determined, but in the short term, connector manufacturers are faced with the expensive task of documenting the compliance status of their current products and providing data on the use of chemicals used by a global network of suppliers. The creation and maintenance of these huge databases requires resources that are already stretched thin.  Replacing a banned chemical will likely require utilizing a new, more expensive material. The implementation of nanomaterials, with their unique mechanical and electrical properties, may be problematic as there is little data available on how this entirely new class of material may impact human health.

The vast and expanding maze of international and domestic environmental directives has added cost to the product during a period of economic recession. Recent connector user surveys, conducted by Bishop & Associates, indicate that the majority of connector users expect connector prices to decrease over the next six months, potentially squeezing profit margins already under attack by a host of Asian competitors.

Connector manufacturers are doing whatever it takes to respond to these environmental requirements. OEMs are mandating compliance to the proliferating list of environmental initiatives, and the added expenses are simply becoming part of the cost of doing business.

Bishop & Associates comments:

• Environmental mandates, both legislative as well as those driven by consumer demand, are proliferating. Connector manufacturers are providing necessary documentation in a variety of formats as demanded by their customers.

• The December 2008 revision of RoHS added no new banned materials, but will bring instrumentation and medical equipment under the scope of the directive starting in 2014.

• To date, the WEEE directive has been less successful than anticipated, with only an estimated one-third of reclaimable material being properly recycled. New targets are being set.

• Physical changes to connectors driven by the RoHS mandate have been addressed, with all new connectors designed for compatibility.

• More recent legislation, such as REACH, adds significant research and paperwork demands, with the potential to require product and process changes as specific chemicals are banned.

• China RoHS is currently a sleeping giant, but it has the potential to increase the documentation load, depending on what the finalized program requires.

• Additional environmental standards driven by other countries, as well as individual U.S. states, reflect the fact our federal government continues to respond rather than lead on this issue. We’re assuming this position has limited our influence on how these mandates are written and enforced. It remains to be seen if the new Obama administration follows up on its promises to become more proactive on environmental issues.

• The issue of tin whiskers has not proven to be a problem to date, but the causes are still under investigation and could become an issue as contact centerlines decrease. Some connector manufacturers have added an extra reflow step on pure tin-plated contacts to reduce stress that is known to stimulate whisker growth.

• The original RoHS directive focused on reducing certain materials in electronic products, but the REACH directive now includes materials used in the packaging of the product.

• Broad mandates often generate unintended consequences. It is yet to be seen if the net effect of these initiatives results in an overall improvement of our environment.

• Departments that are responsible for managing their supply chain and providing the burgeoning volume of documentation to support these environmental mandates will have excellent job security for many years.

• Representatives at connector manufacturers expressed strong support for an industry consortium to coordinate an effort to harmonize the current collection of global environmental standards, as well as create a universally accepted format for data collection.

Robert Hult
Director of Product Technology, Bishop & Associates, Inc.
Robert Hult has been in the connector industry for more than 36 years. Hult began his career as a sales engineer for Amphenol. He joined AMP in 1972 and served in several management positions through 1996. In 1997, Hult joined Foxconn as group marketing manager for Intel in Chandler, Arizona, USA. Prior to joining Bishop & Associates, Hult was the regional application engineering manager for Tyco Electronics.

Hult graduated in 1968 from Bradley University with a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics technology and a minor in business.