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Abstract
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The European and Chinese Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directives call for the minimization or elimination of several environmentally harmful elements from all electrical and electronic equipment. This represents some changes to Metrologic products. Those changes are outlined below.
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Compliance with RoHS Directive
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On January 27, 2003, the European Union issued their RoHS directive. The Chinese government followed with a directive of their own in 2005 that bore essentially the same requirements. The RoHS directive (European Parliament Directive 2002/95/EC) mandates that producers of electrical or electronic equipment sold into Europe must minimize or eliminate the following materials from their design, as they are considered health risks:
• Lead
• Mercury
• Cadmium
• Hexavalent Chromium
• Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)
These materials must be reduced to their appropriate level (as called out by the directive) by July 1, 2006.
Metrologic’s commitment to the environment means that we will make the necessary changes to our products in order to comply with the directive. This will involve converting most of the non-compliant components* (electronics, PC boards, etc.) of our products to their compliant equivalent. We will also modify assembly processes (solder, glue, etc.) to make them fully compliant with the directive. These changes will not affect the form, fit, or function of our products, and have been tested with the same diligence we test all our products to insure continued reliability and performance. Model numbers will remain the same as well, but the scanner’s revision letter will be increased to reflect these changes. Accessories for products will also be converted. This includes stands, cables, power supplies, and any other items that ship in a product kit with the exception of batteries, which fall outside the RoHS directive.
The responsibility for RoHS currently lies with Metrologic as the manufacturer of these goods. We are responsible for the conversion of all product to be “put on the market” after July 1, 2006. The term “put on the market” refers to the sale of Metrologic product to any of our distributor, reseller, or end-user partners. These partners are not held responsible for selling RoHS compliant product if they have purchased that product before the July 1 deadline. Any product purchased from Metrologic after July 1 will be compliant.
Service centers with non-compliant parts may use those parts to repair non-compliant product, even after the July 1 deadline. However, compliant product must be repaired with compliant parts.
For more information on RoHS, visit http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/waste/weee_index.htm.
Please review these or contact your local Metrologic representative if you have any further questions.
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