Recently enacted legislation continues to require companies worldwide to reduce the lead content in electrical and electronic products. Current legislation in Japan and the Netherlands requires manufacturers to take back certain discarded electrical and electronic products for proper disposal if they contain lead. In Japan these products include TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines. Proposed legislation by the European community-the WEEE directive slated for implementation in 2006--includes a similar take-back provision. Due to the complexities of take-back and recycling regulations, many manufacturers will insist that their products be lead-free. Controversy rages over whether electronic products should be targeted by these laws. But regulatory and market forces may make this debate academic. If an OEM customer wants market and sell a lead-free product, connector manufacturers and others will need to comply. In connector systems lead primarily exists in some contact platings. Lead may also exist in certain connectors as an alloying element in copper or steel or as an additive in certain PVC plastics. When used as an additive in metals, lead acts to improve the machinability. At this point, there is no suitable low cost replacement and as such, this source of lead is exempted from most legislation. Lead additives in PVC have been virtually eliminated by improved PVC formulations. Migrating to lead free interconnect products requires: 1) lead free plating capability, 2) an understanding of lead free processing and 3) polymers with greater temperature stability than are typically used today.
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