[sdiy] RoHS

[R. D. Davis]

Quothe clark at andrews.edu, from writings of Tue, Jan 10, 2006 at
10:57:50AM -0500:
>    The good news is that most parts are now being shipped lead-free,

What's good about that?  It may be fine for some large corporations,
but for people who build, modify and repair their own equipment, it
spells disaster.  We need leaded components for repairing and
modifying our older equipment in a way that doesn't make it
unreliable, or worse.  The amount of lead in electronic components is
miniscule compared to many other uses of lead, so RoHS is senseless.
Lead is unlikely to leach into the ground from electronic equipment
and I read that 0.6% of lead used is used in electronic equipment.

Apparently those jackasses in Brussels who run the EU, and are causing
us all of these problems, have had their brains damaged by eating
horse-meat.  It's most unfortunate that those demented dolts are
causing so many problems outside of the EU, ranging from this RoHS
problem to the problem of horse-slaughter and requirments for horses
in the US to soon be included in a national animal ID system (for the
safety of the horse-meat eating goons).  Screw 'em.  If Bush had an
adequately functioning brain, surely he'd have waged war on Brussels
instead of Iraq.

>    If you plan to SELL any product, you should note that it isn't good
> enough just to buy lead-free parts and then say your product is
> lead-free.  You MUST get documentation from the manufacturer for EVERY
> part that certifies that the particular part is RoHS compliant.  Only
> then should you state that your product is compliant.

Is that not absolutely ridiculous?  Why bother complying with mindless
bureaucracy intended to make things more difficult for smaller
businesses and individuals, so that some larger business benefit?
Here in the U.S. anyway, we should be self-sufficient, like we once
were, and not give a damn about what the the EU, requires... then,
maybe other countries, including member states of the EU might do the
same and break free of the strangle-hold of the EU.

>    I'm currently doing this for all of the products my company makes and
> it is a pain.  Every little part, whether it be a screw or a sticker
> has to have some form or documentation.  But overall it is more of a

People need to start thumbing their noses at the bureaucrats involved
with RoHS and not bother with all of that foolishness.  If enough
people did that, they couldn't enforce anything.  Why are people such
saps who give in to whatever some idiot politicians, etc. want them to
do?

> hassle and the issue of parts availability is a non-issue.  The bigger
> issue is just the manufacturing portion of doing lead-free.  So far the
> biggest damage done is that it obsoleted our $12K wave soldering
> machine since the solder pots aren't compatible with lead-free solder. 

Are most your customers demanding that you bother with the RoHS
rubbish?  If not, why bother complying with all of that ridiculous
certification and documentation?

-- 
   R. D. Davis                The difference between humans & other animals: an
www.rddavis.org  410-744-4900    unnatural belief that we're above Nature & her
     Dangling Spiders              other creatures, using dogma to justify such
   Electronic Music Studio           beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.