RoHS Directive and Standpoint of Echo

As stipulated in RoHS (Restriction of certain Hazardous Substances) concerning environment protection, from July 1st 2006, new electrical and electronic equipments put on the market should not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, Poly-brominated biphenyls (PBB) or Poly-brominated biphenyl ethers (PBDE). Only compliant products will be allowed for sale in EU.

To meet the requirement of RoHS, Echo has taken active measures for transition to the new lead-free technology, ensuring all products complying with RoHS and strengthening the leader in lead-free industry.

1) Information-collecting:

- collect standards for lead-free soldering, lead-free material, electronic components, PCB, solder as well as customer requirement for RoHS Compliant products, take part in seminars about RoHS Compliant technology.

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2)Equipment evaluation:

- evaluate the current equipments and new ones for feasibilities of RoHS Compliant production as per parameters and new workmanship.

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3) Preparation:

- Retrain staff about RoHS Compliant technology.
- Pay attention to our supplier’s response to RoHS Compliant production and compliant material supply, which is a key factor during transition production.
- Replace equipments: As per the result of evaluation, a new SMT Line, wave soldering line for PCB assembly and new hand soldering plan will be introduced.
- Site Layout: There will be a parallel manufacture (lead-containing and lead-free products) from initial lead-free manufacture to total compliant manufacture. So it is of great importance to identify the leaded production from lead-free production. We have made full preparations: stocks have been marked clearly, a workshop being available for lead-free production. Along with lead-free production making way further, previous lead-containing assembly lines will be converted into lead-free gradually. We have employed designators for lead-free procedure from material to finished product to prevent cross-contaminating non-compliant products.
- RoHS Compliant material Sourcing: the most crucial factor which affects the transition speed because material has a direct impact on lead-free production. In addition, it is another key factor to source RoHS Compliant part and to use up the current leaded stock as soon as possible.

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4) Transition:

- During the middle and late phase of preparation, there will be a parallel manufacturing (leaded and lead-free productions at the same time). We have put forward a detailed Transition Schedule for your reference in which most products would be scheduled to be RoHS Compliant by the end of 2005.
- Analyze and find out solutions of problems encountered during trial RoHS Compliant production, accumulate experiences and provide top quality products.

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5) Compliance:

- From January 2006, 90% of buzzers and alarms will be RoHS-compliant. From July 2006, leaded production will be eliminated in Echo.

RoHS-COMPLIANT INDICATORS
Special marks or labels will be attached to inner&outer package of compliant products. RoHS-compliant products will be marked or attached with such an indicator

as while Pb-free ones will attached or marked with

Those involved in manufacturing, selling, distributing, recycling or treating electrical and electronic equipment.