How the Changing Regulatory Landscape is Affecting Equipment Reliability, 2009 TAPPI Engineering, Pulping, Environmental Conference

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The European Union directive 2002/95/EC “on the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment” (RoHS) was implemented in July 2006. This was the first of many regulations with the shared aim of the elimination of lead in electronic products. However, ongoing research has shown that printed circuit boards made using lead-free materials can be more susceptible to corrosion and that lead-free products with immersion silver (ImmAg) surface finish are particularly susceptible to corrosion in high sulfur environments – the same environments found in pulp and paper manufacturing.