✔ RoHS Guide

RoHS and the ELV Directive

The ELV directive (Directive 2000/53/EC) is aimed at increasing the recyclable content of vehicles manufactured or sold in the European Union. ELV is an abbreviation for �End of Life Vehicles.� This directive only applies to components used in automotive vehicles�such as automotive wire and cable. It went into effect July 1, 2003, and bans or limits the use of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium. As a rule of thumb, XLP (cross-linked polyethylene) insulated automotive wire such as SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) types SXL, GXL and TXL comply with this directive. However, PVC insulated automotive wire types such as GPT, TWP, SGT and SGX may contain lead and may not be compliant unless specifically requested in purchase specifications. This directive limits the use of the four substances shown in Table 2. Substance Maximum Amount Permitted in Parts per Million (PPM) Lead (Pb) 1,000 Cadmium (Cd) 100 Mercury (Hg) 1,000 Hexavalent Chromium (CrVI) 1,000

The End of Life Vehicle (ELV) directive relates to automobiles; the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive covers a broad array of products including large and small household appliances, radios, TVs, video recorders, lighting equipment, electronic tools and electric light bulbs. Both of these directives essentially mean the same thing. Whatever cars are produced by July 2007 and whatever products that fall under the RoHS directive produced by July 2006 must be free of the following substances: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and the flame retardants polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) used in plastics.