Voluntary programme to restrict use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) despite EU exclusion for these instruments
National Instruments has announced its plan to release environmentally friendly products as part of the NI Hazardous Substances Reduction initiative.
This NI initiative is a voluntary programme modelled after the European Union Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, which restricts the use of harmful substances such as lead, mercury and cadmium in new equipment.
NI already has RoHS-compliant versions of its GPIB interface chips available and plans to release RoHS-compliant versions of other products starting in Q1 2006.
With the new products, engineers and scientists can build systems that meet anticipated future environmental requirements.
"NI recognises that eliminating certain hazardous substances from our products is beneficial not only to the environment but also to NI customers and employees," said Andy Krupp, NI director of quality.
"Through this NI initiative, the company demonstrates its commitment to customers by helping engineers design and develop environmentally friendly products using NI components".
The European Union RoHS directive restricts the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) in new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market in the European Union after 1 July 2006.
The RoHS directive applies to eight categories of electrical and electronic equipment but excludes products in category 9, monitoring and control instruments, under which NI products fall.
