IPC - Association Connecting Electronics Industries
Scope
This Guide applies to products that are supplied to manufacturers of electrotechnical products for incorporation (into their products). It covers materials and substances that may be present in the supplied product@ including batteries. It does not apply to process chemicals (i.e. chemicals used and consumed during manufacture) unless those process chemicals constitute part of the finished product@ nor does it apply to packaging (e.g. cardboard@ plastic tray). This Guide represents industry-wide consensus on the relevant materials and substances that shall be disclosed by suppliers when those materials and substances are present in products that are incorporated into electrotechnical products. The Guide benefits suppliers and their commercial customers by providing consistency and efficiency to the material declaration process and will promote the development of consistent data exchange formats and tools that will facilitate and improve data transfer along the entire global supply chain. It applies to business-to-business transactions. It is not intended to be used by the general public when making purchasing decisions. This Guide contains: ?the lists of substances for disclosure when contained in electrotechnical products; ?the threshold levels for substances in electrotechnical products@ equal to or above which the quantity of the substance must be disclosed; ?the regulatory requirements that establish threshold levels for electrotechnical products@ where appropriate; ?a set of data fields for information exchange. This Guide does not preclude companies from inquiring about the presence of additional substances when necessary for their needs. However@ such requests are outside the scope of this Guide.