Elizabeth, NJ: Alpha Wire Co has announced that 95% of its 10,000 wire, cable, and tubing part numbers are RoHS compliant as of July 2005, one year ahead of the July 2006 deadline, and that these can be specified and ordered immediately.

To support Alpha's customers' engineering and purchasing departments still further, Alpha Wire has launched a number of RoHS initiatives, including:

• When specifying and ordering a product, customers can now log onto Alpha's new online part number search facility at www.alphawire.com. By simply entering the Alpha Wire part number, they will instantly be informed of when the part became RoHS compliant. Alternatively, an Excel spreadsheet listing all Alpha Wire's products and their compliance status can be downloaded. Future compliance dates are also provided for current noncompliant products.


• When the product is received by a customer, RoHS compliance is referenced on the distributor's invoice, the packing list, and most importantly, on the product itself. A Certificate of Compliance is also included. This comprehensive listing and labeling is designed to aid product identification and tracking. In addition, following customer feedback, part numbers remain unchanged, so there is no need for customers to rewrite their bills-of-materials.

To provide a simple, quick, and foolproof means of validating to RoHS compliance its wire, cable, and tubing materials, Alpha Wire has invested in an in-house energy disperse x-ray fluorescence spectrometer (EDXRF), which is capable of identifying basic elements and 'fingerprinting' the material. Alpha Wire has reengineered the chemical composition of any nonconforming materials to guarantee RoHS compliance, while ensuring that the product continues to deliver at least equal or superior technical performance.

The European Union's RoHS Directive, which takes effect July 1, 2006 in Europe, mandates that electrical and electronic products put in the market within the EU shall contain restrictive levels of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), hexavalent chromium (Cr6+), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE). The Directive's goal is to protect human health and the environment.