The recyclers and disposers of electronic scrap and manufacturers of new electrical appliances will be required to carry out analytical testing to demonstrate that these directives are being met
On the 1 July 2006 the RoHS/WEEE Directive came into effect.
The objectives of the new directives are the environmentally safe disposal of electrical and electronic devices (WEEE) and the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in these devices (RoHS).
The recyclers and disposers of electronic scrap and manufacturers of new electrical appliances will be required to carry out analytical testing to demonstrate that these directives are being met.
In order to test materials effectively sample preparation is extremely important.
Electrical components come in many different types and sizes from relatively simple devices through to complex instruments which contain many different sub assemblies.
This creates the challenge of producing a representative, neutral to analysis laboratory sample.
To be able to carry out reproducible analyses and therefore achieve representative results, a completely homogenous sample is required where the fineness should be below 200 um.
A recent draft documentation of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) recommends the initial size reduction of this material in a Retsch cutting mill such as the SM 2000.
This high performance mill has proven to be ideal for the size reduction of a mixture of hard and ductile as well as soft-elastic materials.
Retsch also produce a version for heavy-metal free grinding.
The instrument has a low heat build up and is available with a wide range of accessories.
With the help of a sample divider (Retsch PT 100) a representative sub sample is obtained for further size reduction to analytical fineness.
