✔ RoHS Guide

Compliance & Materials Risk for Manufacturing

RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) impacts the entire electronics industry and many electrical products as well. The original RoHS restricts the use of ten hazardous materials found in electrical and electronic products. However, hazardous-substance compliance has evolved far beyond the original restricted RoHS materials.

Today's manufacturing ecosystem - spanning batteries, semiconductors, electrification, and AI hardware - depends on hundreds of critical and often hazardous process materials. RoHSGuide helps engineers, compliance teams, and manufacturers understand how these substances are regulated, handled, and documented across the entire product and supply lifecycle.

The compliance stack

Modern compliance spans three interconnected layers:

Product Layer - Covers RoHS, REACH, WEEE, Battery, and related directives that limit hazardous substances in finished goods.

Supplier Layer - Addresses vendor documentation, country-of-origin risk, and traceability of materials and components across multi-tier supply chains.

Process Layer - Focuses on chemicals and inputs used in manufacturing - etchants, dopants, rare earths, lithium, PFAS, and other process substances that are hazardous to handle, store, or transport. These materials may not be restricted under RoHS, but they carry major compliance, worker-safety, and environmental responsibilities.

RoHSGuide connects these layers into a single framework of product, process, and supply-chain risk.

Beyond the RoHS-10

The ten restricted RoHS substances remain the foundation of product compliance, but they are only part of the modern picture. Today's high-tech industries depend on materials that are both critical and hazardous:

• Rare earth oxides and tailings from magnet and catalyst production.
• Lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite used in batteries.
• Semiconductor gases and etchants such as HF, silane, and phosphine.
• Heavy-metal alloys and high-temperature coatings.
• PFAS and fluoropolymers now facing global phase-outs.

These substances are regulated through a patchwork of frameworks - RoHS, REACH, WEEE, TSCA, OSHA, CLP, ELV, transport, and EOL directives.

RoHSGuide tracks how these rules intersect and how the definition of "hazardous substance" is expanding to include critical materials, process inputs, and circular-economy obligations.

Why it matters how

Reindustrialization, electrification, and AI manufacturing are reshaping global supply chains.

Factories, fabs, and gigafactories rely on new materials that are both essential and risky. Compliance is no longer about what's in the product alone - it's about how materials are sourced, processed, and recovered.

Understanding this full materials lifecycle is key to reducing risk, meeting regulations, and building resilience.

Site scope

Compliance - RoHS, REACH, WEEE, Battery, ELV, and global equivalents.

Risk Management - Supplier assurance, material traceability, documentation control, and software tools.

Process Materials - Emerging hazards in rare earths, lithium, and semiconductor chemicals.

Resources - FAQs, checklists, exemptions, and templates.

For broader context on the industries that rely on these frameworks, see:

• ElectronsX - electrification, batteries, and EV manufacturing
• SemiconductorX - semiconductor materials and process compliance
• DatacentersX - AI infrastructure, compute, and energy systems
• 5IREnterprise - reindustrialization frameworks and national strategy

Each site operates independently but complements RoHSGuide by examining how compliance and materials governance shape the next industrial era.