IPC Publishes Materials Declaration Standard

As the deadline for compliance with the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive draws near, companies across the electronics supply chain are using materials declarations to ensure the compliance of their supply chain. While the EU’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive is the most visible manifestation of this movement, the growing list of “materials of concern” goes beyond the six substances prohibited under RoHS.

Now, IPC-1752, Materials Declaration Management, will offer a single standard to replace the multiple reporting forms and formats being used for materials declaration. IPC-1752 outlines 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. At the same time, each company requesting data will be able to select from several options in terms of the level and scope of the data.

IPC-1752 was drafted by more than 50 representatives from OEMs, EMS providers, component manufacturers, circuit board manufacturers, materials suppliers, information technology solution providers, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The team did not start from scratch, but instead built on earlier work done by the iNEMI Material Composition Data Exchange Project and the Joint Industry Guide (JIG). The JIG, which was recently published by the Electronics Industries Alliance, defines the specifics of what needs to be reported, i.e. the specific substances, and the regulatory requirements that establish threshold levels.

IPC-1752 establishes standard reporting fields which are related to each other through a UML data model developed with the assistance of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The standard includes two reporting forms, IPC 1752-1 and IPC 1752-2, which are based on Adobe™ PDF forms technology. Data reported through these forms can then be extracted and exchanged in a standard machine readable (XML) format. The forms can then be exchanged via electronic means from e-mail and Web interfaces to advanced and secure business-to-business methods. Additionally, the XML language will interface with company databases and third party solution provider software and the RosettaNet partner interface process (PIP), providing a direct path to full B2B automation of material composition data exchange.

To facilitate broader use and applicability to a wide variety of OEM requirements, the standard recognizes 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 and JIG (Joint Industry Guide) level A and B (and other company requested) substances at the part level
• Class 4 – Same as Class 3 with the addition of manufacturing information
• Class 5 – RoHS substances, JIG level A and B substances, and other substances at the homogeneous material level
• Class 6 – Same as Class 5 with the addition of manufacturing information.

The final drafts of IPC-1751 and IPC-1752, including pdf-based declaration forms (IPC-1752-1, IPC-1752-2) and a Users Guide (IPC-1752-3) were approved by nearly unanimous consent during a December-January ballot. Following the ballot, the committee met in January to review the ballot results and approve editorial changes to the final drafts. IPC anticipates making the final draft available for free download from the IPC website and receiving formal ANSI standards approval in March.

Going forward, the developing committee and the supporting trade associations have a dual mission: drive adoption of the current standard and develop an amendment that will include additional reporting parameters.

During the development of the standard, the committee developed a “wish list” of items that they would like to include in the standard. In order to meet the aggressive development schedule, these items were deferred until the standard could be published. Now, with IPC-1752 ready for release, the committee has turned its attention to the rapid development and implementation of data validation, reporting of multiple part numbers with the same material composition, and improvement of the manufacturing data section.

Since the original posting in June 2005, the draft standard has been downloaded 3,200 times by users in more than 50 different countries. Many companies have been preparing to use the standard and have been pilot testing the draft standard with their suppliers. A number of component manufacturers have indicated that IPC-1752 will be the only method in which they intend to provide material declarations. Others have indicated that they can respond almost immediately to requests for information in IPC-1752 format while customers requests using proprietary formats will be added to a request queue and cannot be guaranteed a response time. The IPC standards committee is also coordinating efforts with the International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC’s) Technical Committee 111 (TC111) to promote IPC-1752 as an international materials declaration standard.

So what should you be doing as a representative within the electronics supply chain? You should learn about the overall elements, objectives and benefits of the IPC-1752 standard. If part of your primary role is RoHS compliance, you should aggressively investigate what it will take to support the standard within your processes and data management systems. While it is possible to use the standard forms manually, companies should look at automating for reduced costs, improved response time, and better data quality.

The standard is available for free download at www.ipc.org/IPC-175x. Want to learn more? IPC will sponsor several workshops in the coming months. For a seminar schedule and additional information, go to www.ipc.org/ipccalendar.asp.