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RoHs compliance for Stainless Steel Fasteners

Dear readers,

My name is Mario Micallef of Concept Fasteners in Australia, I'm sure that many of you have become to know about the banning of Hazardous substances into Europe. This restriction comes in force in july 2006.

We are currently supplying stainless steel screws to customers at present, I am concerned that the passivation on these screws may not be RoHs compliant.

Can someone shed some light on this. I thought that these screws would be Ok but I am not sure.

Best Regards,

Mario Micallef

2006

It is my belief that all stainless steel is RoHS compliant.

Tony Keas

2006

You mentioned passivation. Unless it is citric acid passivation on stainless steel than it should be RoHS compliant.

Poobalan

2006

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I'm sorry, did you really mean to say UNLESS it is citric acid passivation? I would think people would be more concerned about nitric based passivation, which introduces chromium into the passivation bath and often uses dichromate as part of the process. Though from my understanding of RoHS, even that isn't a problem as no hexavalent chrome is actually added to the metal.

Certainly with citric acid passivation, chromium of any valence doesn't enter into it until the drying stage when the steel hits air and the chromium oxide layer forms.

Ray Kremer
Stellar Solutions, Inc.

McHenry, Illinois

2006