RoHS DECLARATION

At General Metal Finishing, LLC (“GMF”), we take our environmental responsibility seriously.

Our commitment to excellence not only applies to production activities and customer service but also extends to our efforts to protect the environment by:

  • Complying with environmental regulations relating to the metal plating industry,
  • Educating both project team members and customers about regulatory updates related to the electroplating industry, and
  • Providing compliant electroplated finishes under the European Commission’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (RoHS).

Adherence to the following directives frames GMF’s environmental protection stance with respect to our electroplating services:

  • Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS 1), which restricts the use of six hazardous substances—lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers—in electrical and electronic equipment.
  • Directive 2003/11/EC, which amends Council Directive 76/769/EC to include pentabromodiphenyl ether and octabromodiphenyl ether.
  • Directive 2011/65/EC (RoHS 2), which recasts RoHS 1, maintaining the same restricted substances but introducing a mandate for the use of harmonized compliance marking and inclusion of other categories of devices.

Plating Finish

GMF certifies the following plating finishes to be compliant with the relevant European Union Directives:

  • Chemical Film
  • Copper
  • Ebonol-C
  • Electrolytic Nickel
  • Electroless Nickel- Boron
  • Electroless Nickel- Phosphorous (6-8% P, 9-12% P)
  • Gold- Soft (ASTM Type III)
  • Gold- Hard (ASTM Type I, II)
  • Palladium Plating Finish
  • Platinum Plating Finish
  • Silver Plating Finish
  • Tin Plating Finish (Pure Matte and Pure Bright)

In compliance with RoHS directives, GMF does not intentionally add banned substances to plating solutions, and to the best of our knowledge, our chemical and plating bath suppliers provide products that are also free of the same hazardous components. It should be noted that trace amounts of chemicals and other substances may occur as impurities in any product; however, neither GMF nor its suppliers test for substances not intentionally added.

Compliance certification is subject to change without notice.

Please note that tin-lead plating has long been accepted as a plating finish for connectors; when specified by clients, GMF will continue to supply this finish, but will be unable to provide certification of compliance with RoHS.