Materials Declarations

Guidance from the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry as well as a compliance proposal (.pdf) developed by the European Trade Association EICTA emphasize the importance of materials declarations, i.e. supplier disclosure regarding the material content of supplied materials/products.

IPC has developed a standard to simplify and standardize how the industry collects, tracks and discloses product material content information. From these efforts have come two draft standards, IPC-1751, Generic Requirements for Declaration Process Management - describing all generic requirements, including company information and, IPC-1752, Materials Declaration Management - establishing electronic data formats and providing standardized forms to simplify the exchange of materials declaration information.

Background information on the standard can be viewed in this presentation (.pdf) given by Fern Abrams Feb 1, 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden.  For more information you can read this article (.pdf, Members Only access).

IPC has scheduled workshops and web-based seminars to help companies understand and use the materials declaration standard.  We have also published a handbook to assist printed circuit board manufacturers in gathering data to complete a materials declaration, IPC-1065.