By Valerie Coffey
As the July 2006 deadline for compliance with the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive draws near, companies across the electronics supply chain are focusing their efforts on materials declaration and curing the chaos of multiple reporting forms and formats. A collaborative effort by IPC - Association Connecting Electronics Industries, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Adobe, the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI), RosettaNet, and other volunteers has resulted in the IPC-1752, Materials Declaration Management standard.
The IPC-1752 standard outlines a supply-chain materials declaration format and process that provides a simple, effective approach to collecting, tracking, and disclosing product material content information. The standard establishes electronic data formats and provides standardized forms to simplify the exchange of materials declaration information while improving efficiency and reducing costs.
The specified forms, based on Adobe PDF forms technology, use a UML data model developed with the assistance of NIST. The forms can be printed or can be exchanged via electronic means from e-mail to web interfaces to advanced and secure business-to-business methods.
Data captured by these forms can also be extracted and exchanged in a standard XML format that will conform to the related RosettaNet Partner Interface Process (PIPs). The machine-readable XML structure will establish and implement specific data constraints and restrictions to ensure uniformity.
• Suppliers and their customers can use IPC-1752 to exchange data at their choice of three reporting levels, which are organized into six reporting classes:
Class 1 - RoHS reporting at a homogeneous level in yes/no format;
Class 2 - Same as Class 1 with the addition of manufacturing information;
Class 3 - RoHS reporting at a homogeneous level in yes/no format and JIG (Joint Industry Guide) level A and B at the homogeneous material level and other substances at the part level;
Class 4 - Same as Class 3 with the addition of manufacturing information;
Class 5 - RoHS reporting at a homogeneous level in yes/no format and JIG level A and B at the homogeneous material level and other substances at the homogeneous level;
Class 6 - Same as Class 5 with the addition of manufacturing information.
“As the RoHS deadline approaches, the entire electronics supply chain is scrambling to ensure that they can establish necessary information and evidence of compliance,” said Richard Kubin, vice president of E2open, Inc., and chair of the IPC 2-18 Supplier Declaration Subcommittee and of the iNEMI Materials Composition Data Exchange Project. “Through adoption of IPC-1752, these companies can now utilize a consistent format both for collection of data as well as its distribution. The associated XML schema and standard forms allow for the automation and direct integration of this information into key internal systems, greatly reducing the manual effort required in managing compliance.”
In support of the new standard, iNEMI members issued the following statement: “IPC-1752 is a cornerstone in the overall industry strategy for standardization of materials content declarations across the supply chain. This standard integrates and leverages several industry efforts, establishing a common solution shaped not only by regulatory guidelines but also by industry needs and requirements.” In a February press release, iNEMI stated the commitment of the following companies to implementing IPC-1752: Agile, Celestica, E2open, Foxconn, Jabil Circuit, Lucent Technologies, PCNalert, PTC, Sanmina-SCI, Speedline Technologies, Solectron Corp., Sun Microsystems, Teradyne, Texas Instruments, and Tyco Electronics. More than 3,200 people in 50 countries downloaded the document while in its draft format.
The document is available for download at www.ipc.org/ipc-175x.
