The 6th SMT China Vision Awards Call for Entrie

SMT Chinae: During economic depression, everything slows down. However, China’s electronics manufacturing market remains strong in 2012. The coming years will find China continues to be the world's largest electronics manufacturing market, the electronics manufacturing industry will continue be driven by the strong demand of the domestic market.

Both international and domestic providers of SMT equipment, materials, software and services have made outstanding contributions to the rapid growth of China’s electronics manufacturing industry by their inventions and innovations. To recognize their contributions, SMT China magazine is pleased to sponsor the 6th SMT China Vision Awards program. SMT China magazine launched the SMT China Vision Awards in 2007, which is the only international accreditation for China's electronics manufacturing market.

Micro-friction stir welding project

LinkedIn: Vitor Marques • I am now engaged in a European project that aims to explore micro-friction stir welding to be used in SMT, therefore avoiding the use of solders/flux and formation of intermetallics.

This technology looks promising and would be of special interest for selective soldering, power electronics, high temperature electronics, heat sinks and packaging for deep sea applications. So far this technology is able to perform spot welds in 200-100microns Cu sheet with heat being confined to the weld itself. Our aim is to reach a spot weld of 200microns diameter. If anyone require more information please let me know. Soon a project website will be launch.

If anyone require more information about it, please let me know.

Self-healing electronics could work longer and reduce waste

University of Illinois: When one tiny circuit within an integrated chip cracks or fails, the whole chip – or even the whole device – is a loss. But what if it could fix itself, and fix itself so fast that the user never knew there was a problem?

A team of University of Illinois engineers has developed a self-healing system that restores electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit in less time than it takes to blink. Led by aerospace engineering professor Scott White and materials science and engineering professor Nancy Sottos, the researchers published their results in the journal Advanced Materials.

Tin whisker risk assessment for space systems

Scopus: An integrated framework has been developed for tin whisker risk assessment for space systems. This includes microanalysis, models of the time evolution of whisker growth distributions, metal vapor arc risk factors, and hardware-specific factors. Microanalysis can be used to illustrate several general principles about the effect of tin plating microstructure on tin whisker growth. In particular, a nickel underlayer does not necessarily protect against tin whisker growth. Plating microstructure determines the extent of diffusion and IMC formation. The plating microstructure can be affected by several factors, such as thermal history. Impurity content and proper alloying of tin-lead platings are also important. X-ray fluorescence cannot necessarily determine whether or not a tin-lead solder plating is properly alloyed.



Electronic Device Failure Analysis 
Volume 14, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 14-20  


Mason, M. , Eng, G., Leung, M., Stupian, G., Yeoh, T.  
Aerospace Corporation, Microelectronics Technology Department, United States

IPC Tin Whiskers Conference

IPC Tin Whiskers Conference: Real-world examples will be used to illustrate causes of growth, risk mitigation and materials perspective, methods for detection and failure analysis. Explore the full range of tin whiskers theory and practice in every market sector: military/aerospace, automotive and consumer electronics.

April 17–19, 2012 | Ft. Worth, Texas

Mitigation Measurements and Whisker Survey of Commercial Components
Martin Wickham, National Physical Laboratory-NPL, UK

Changes in orientation - materials science in China

Materials World Magazine, 01 Jan 2012: Subscribers to Materials World magazine, published by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining IOM3), can peruse an article by Eoin Redahan about the level of advancement of research and development in China, a country which can now boast more materials science papers than any other country.
“Changes in orientation - materials science in China” claims that the level of investment in Chinese science is unprecedented, with R&D funding almost reaching the US$100 billion mark in the past five years. Research papers must now be published in English and international conferences must also be conducted in English.
But China continues to be stymied by the lack of genuine innovation in materials science, according to an overseas Chinese materials science professor, who prefers not to be named. ‘In China, although so many people study materials, there are not many original breakthroughs or new discoveries,” he explains.
The Chinese Government has outlined several areas that will receive particular attention in the future. Premier Wen Jibao pointed towards accelerated development in areas such as new materials (including tin alloys), advanced equipment manufacturing, new energy powered automobiles, biotechnology and IT. In particular, universities are developing technology specific to their local resources, such as areas rich in magnesium or rare earth materials.

NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project Joint Test Report

NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project Joint Test Report: According to a NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project Joint Test Report, published in December 2011, although electronics for military and aerospace applications are not included in the RoHS legislation, engineers are beginning to find that the commercial industry’s move towards RoHS compliance has still affected their supply chain and changed their parts. Most parts suppliers plan to phase out their non-compliant, leaded production and many have already done so. As a result, the ability to find leaded components is getting harder and harder. Some buyers are now attempting to acquire the remaining SnPb inventory, if it’s not already obsolete.
A further challenge is the greater likelihood of Pb-free parts inadvertently being mixed with Pb parts and ending up on what are supposed to be Pb systems.
According to NASA, Pb-free components produce one of the greatest risks to the reliability of a weapon system. This is due to new and poorly understood failure mechanisms, as well as unknown long-term reliability. Pb-free solder and component finishes will require additional effort (and cost) to make changes to drawings and task order procedures.

Military/aerospace lead-free solder reliability

Indium Blog: A January ACI workshop presentation by Indium colleagues Ron Lasky and Ed Briggs prompted much discussion on the challenges faced by solder paste flux in the new world of lead-free solder paste and miniaturised components - principally very small solder paste deposits.
One of the hottest topics is nitrogen and lead-free SMT assembly. There seemed to be uniform agreement that solder paste users should be able to demand that their lead-free solder paste should perform well with any PWB pad finish, including OSP immersion silver, electroless nickel  and gold, without the use of nitrogen. Not only does using nitrogen cost money, but it will usually make tombstoning worse. However, in the opinion of most people, nitrogen is a must for wave soldering and, since it minimizes dross development, it likely pays for itself.
Fred Verdi of ACI finished the meeting with an excellent presentation on “Pb-free Electronics for Aerospace and Defense”, which discussed the work that went into the “Manhattan Project.” A free download of the entire project report is available. There appears to be agreement that acceptable lead-free reliability has been established for consumer products with lifetimes of five years or so, but not for military/aerospace electronics where lifetimes can be up to 40 years in harsh service conditions. These vast product lifetime and consequences of failure differences are depicted in the chart displayed. Commercial products are in quadrant A and military/aerospace products in quadrant D.
Fred and the Manhattan Project Team have identified many "gaps" that need to be addressed to determine and mitigate the risk of lead-free assembly for quadrant D products.  They plan to start this approximately $100M program in 2013.
Reference
http://www.navyb2pcoe.org/pdf/LFEMP_book.pdf

New solder jet design for selective soldering from Panasonic

US20120024938A1 A solder drawing member (402) is detachably attached on the outer side of a jet nozzle (303) that jets molten solder pumped from a solder tank (102) storing the molten solder. The solder drawing member (402) is made of a material having higher wettability to the molten solder than the surface material of the jet nozzle (303). Thus a force of separating the solder from a point to be soldered can be increased by a surface tension of the molten solder flowing on the solder drawing member (402), thereby reducing bridge phenomena and icicle phenomena.

In the configuration of Patent Literature 1, unfortunately, excessive solder on the leads 107 cannot be removed. In the configuration of Patent Literature 2, the venturi forming plate 202 is necessary in the nozzle body 203, resulting in a complicated nozzle structure.
An object of the present invention is to provide a soldering apparatus which can reduce bridge phenomena and icicle phenomena

Manufacturability & Reliability Challenges with LNCSP Packages in Lead-Free Processes

SMTONLINE: Leadless, near chip scale packages (LNCSP), like the quad flat pack no lead (QFN), are the fastest growing package types in the electronics industry today. Early LNCSPs were fairly straightforward components with small overall dimensions, a single outer row of leads, and small lead counts. However, there is currently a proliferation of advanced LNCSP package styles that have started to approach BGA packages in terms of both size and number of connections. Some of the newer packages have three or more rows, pitches as fine as 0.35 mm, lead counts exceeding 200, and dimensions exceeding 12 mm x 12 mm

While the advantages of these packages are well documented, concerns arise with both reliability and manufacturability in lead-free environments. So, acceptance of these packages in long-life, severe environment, high-reliability applications is somewhat limited. One of the most common drivers for reliability failures is the inappropriate adoption of new technologies like LNCSP. Since robust manufacturing and qualifications standards always lag behind implementation, users must carefully select and validate these components for suitability in their use environments and customer applications.

Soldering, flexure, and cleanliness issues have driven many failures seen in production and in the field. All of these areas must be addressed early in the selection and validation processes. In this paper, we will review and discuss LNCSP-related reliability concerns and challenges, and propose physics-of-failure (PoF)-based approaches to allow the successful introduction and failure analysis of LNCSP components in electronics products.

Method to form solder deposits on substrates

(EP2416634A1: Described is a method of forming a solder deposit on a substrate comprising the following steps i) provide a substrate (102) including a permanent resin layer (103) on top of at least one contact area (101) and a temporary resin layer (104) on top of the permanent resin layer (103), ii) contact the entire substrate area including the at least one contact area (101) with a solution suitable to provide a conductive layer (106) on the substrate surface, iii) electroplate a solder deposit layer (107) containing tin or a tin alloy onto the conductive layer (106) and iv) etch away an amount of the solder deposit layer (107) containing tin or a tin alloy sufficient to remove the solder deposit layer (107) from the temporary resin layer (104) area leaving a solder material layer (107) on the at least one contact area (101).

Currently, the most common method for formation of presolder bumps on the circuit board is the stencil printing method. Some prior proposals in relation to the stencil printing method can be referred to U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,075 (C. G. Angulas et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,266 (K. G. Hoebener et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,128 (Y. Higashiguchi et al.). Solder bumping technique for flip chip assemblies requires design considerations regarding both bump pitch and size miniaturization. According to practical experiences, the stencil printing will become infeasible once the bump pitch is decreased below 0.15 millimeter. In contrast, the solder bumps deposited by electroplating offer the ability to further reduce bump pitch down to below 0.15 millimeter.

EP European Patent Office (EPO)
A1 APPLICATION PUBLISHED WITH SEARCH REPORT i


Inventor: Matejat, Kai-Jens; 14109, Berlin, Germany
Lamprecht, Sven; 16727, Oberkrämer/Eichstädt, Germany
Ewert, Ingo; 14167, Berlin, Germany

Assignee: ATOTECH Deutschland GmbH, 10553 Berlin, Germany

IPC Roadmap 2012 to be released at APEX

SMTONLINE: BUZZ sessions, February 28-March 1, will cover critical industry topics such as process defects; embedded technologies; conflict minerals; supply line issues of obsolescence, quality and compliance of parts and counterfeit parts; breaking research from academia; the industry’s first solar standard for electronics assemblies; and the just-released IPC International Technology Roadmap.

On February 28, the IPC Government Relations committee will hold an open forum to provide an update on IPC’s advocacy efforts to protect PCB designs for military products under ITAR and offer the latest information on the impending conflict minerals regulation.

On the show floor, attendees will be able to get free, unbiased help with their process-related issues at the NPL Defect Database Clinic. In addition, participants can visit the New Product Zone for a sneak preview of the equipment, materials and services that are breaking new ground in the industry, and then go to cheer on the competitors in the IPC APEX EXPO Hand Soldering Competition and IPC Grand Championship.

Bosch patent on keeeping wave solder copper content constant

WO2012013437A1The invention relates to a method for stabilizing a concentration (10) of a constituent, in particular a Cu concentration (10), in a solder bath (34). The removal of the constituent from the solder bath (34) by attachment to the component and solder drawn from the solder bath (34) on a discharge side (38) of the solder bath (34) is recorded. Furthermore, the supply of the constituent introduced into the solder bath (34) by detachment from components to be immersed in the solder bath (34) and constituents subsequently introduced in controlled quantities into the solder bath (34) on a feed side (36) is recorded. Depending on the comparison of the amount of the constituent that is supplied on the feed side (36) and the amount of the constituent that is removed on the discharge side (38), the concentration of the constituent within the solder bath (34) is kept constant

ERMER, Martin , Germany WETZL, Franz , Germany Braun, Helmut ; Germany WINKLER, Jens , Germany

ROBERT BOSCH GMBH Germany

News, Profiles, Stocks and More about this company

Published / Filed: 2012-02-02 / 2011-06-29

The KIC 24/7 Wave Advances the Wave Process from Art to Science

EMSNow KIC introduces the new KIC 24/7 Wave, using embedded sensors in the wave solder machine to automatically measure the thermal profile for each and every processed PCB to the acceptable process window. A thermocouple also is installed in the solder pot to constantly measure the pot temperature.

Any out-of-spec situation is immediately identified, while the standard SPC charts automatically provide Cpk numbers with the ability to provide alarms when the process starts drifting. Every PCB profile is recorded for easy retrieval for full process traceability. Traceability down to the individual PCB is achieved when bar codes are used.

The initial programming of the KIC 24/7 Wave is performed with a KIC profiler. The KIC profiler is capable of quickly identifying the appropriate wave solder settings for an improved process.

For more information about KIC's new Wave 24/7, visit www.kicthermal.com.

Experimental and mechanical characterizations of a lead free solder alloy for electronic devices

Scopus: Electronic power modules devices are paramount components in the aeronautical, automotive and military applications. The solder layers are the most critical parts of the module and are usually subjected in their whole life to complex loading conditions. To improve the design task, realistic thermoelastoviscoplastic and lifetime prediction models which can describe efficiently the deformation-damage of the electrical device must be chosen carefully. Some of the most common behavior models are based on the separation between creep and plasticity deformations such as power law, Garofalo, Darveaux So, to take into account the creep-plasticity interaction, the thermal cycling as well as the hardening-softening effects, unified viscoplastic models are increasingly being used to describe more efficiently the physical state of the material. We propose in this framework a survey of some unified viscoplastic models used in the electronic applications for the viscoplastic modeling of the solder as well as creep-fatigue life prediction rules. The models are used for the characterization of a SnAgCu solder and are briefly compared within tensile, creep data and stabilized responses

Advanced Materials Research
Volume 423, 2012, Pages 210-217
ISSN: 10226680
DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.423.210
Document Type: Article
Source Type: Book series


View references (22)

View at publisher|

Experimental and mechanical characterizations of a lead free solder alloy for electronic devices

Msolli, S. , Dalverny, O. , Alexis, J. , Karama, M.

Université de Toulouse, INP/ENIT, LGP, 47, avenue d'Azereix, F-65013 Tarbes, France

ACE Launches Latest Selective Soldering System

SMTONLINE “In addition, we’ll be bringing our new Manual Lead Tinning System, or MLTS,” Cable adds. “The MLTS is a ground-breaker because it’s an affordable way to tin the leads of fine-pitch QFPs without bridging. No more sending them out to be done somewhere else at high cost, with attendant shipping delays and lead times. Now they can be done ‘right at home’ under house control quickly and reliably and for a fraction of the cost of outsourcing to someone else’s expensive machine.”

The new systems will be exhibited at IPC APEX EXPO 2012 in booth #1636. The Conference and Exhibition takes place February 28-March 1 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.

The new KISS-205, a fully configured in-line SMEMA-compatible selective soldering system effectively splits the process of fluxing, pre-heating, and soldering to significantly gain productivity by reducing TAKT by up to 50% versus incremental processing. “In the KISS-205, a PCB is fluxed and brought to preheat temperature, then sent to the second conveyor for soldering while concurrently applying flux and pre-heating the next PCB,” Cable states. “The bottom line result is that the KISS-205 is twice as fast as a conventional machine. Simply stated, the key advantages of the KISS 205 are speed and process control.”

Modified Process Reduces Porosity When Soldering in Reduced Gravity Environments

Nasa Tech Briefs: A modified process yields lower levels of internal porosity for solder joints produced in reduced-gravity environments. The process incorporates both alternative materials and a modified procedure. The process provides the necessary cleaning action to enable effective bonding of the applied solder alloy with the materials to be joined.

Lead-Free Solder Reliability Prediction | LinkedIn

LinkedIn: Lead-Free Solder Reliability Prediction
My company just released a tool for Lead-Free Solder Reliability Prediction. Would be interested in having people test drive the software and provide feedback. You can try for up to 4 weeks. Let me know.

8 months ago

http://www.dfrsolutions.com/software/

Mehul Dhonde, Cheryl Tulkoff and 2 others like this

7 comments

Follow John

John Kemp • Does this use the thickness of the solder under the component as an input - Like MIL-HDBK-217 ? - Or does it use a different model to get the thermal stress cycling values?

8 months ago• Like

Follow Jo

Jo Caers • Hi Craig, this kind of tool looks very interesting. Can you share your idea's how you see this test driving practically?

8 months ago• Like

Follow Craig

Craig Hillman • John - It uses a modified Coffin-Manson equation, in which one of the inputs is thickness of the solder under the component. Note, the effect of solder thickness is different for different interconnect geometries.

8 months ago• Like

Follow John

John Kemp • Is the best way to get the thickness value by micro-section evaluation of a sample or is there a model/tool/table (from solder types, package syles, and temperatures) built into the software?

8 months ago• Like

Follow Craig

Craig Hillman • Jo - The test drive is quite straight forward. You download the software. We send you a license key. The software comes with tutorials and we provide a brief training session. You play with it for two weeks. Send us your feedback.

8 months ago• Like1

Follow Craig

Craig Hillman • John - The software makes an assumption about solder joint thickness for a given component style, based on our direct experience. You can modify the value if you have reason to believe the thickness is different.

8 months ago• Like

Follow Susan

Susan Zhao • Hello, Craig,

I am very interested with the tool. Is it still possible to try it?

Mixed solder paste patent from Nihon Handa

US20120018048A1: A cream solder obtained by kneading an Sn—Ag—Cu alloy together with a flux, wherein the Sn—Ag—Cu alloy includes a mixture of a first powdery alloy and a second powdery alloy, the first powdery alloy is represented by an Sn—Ag phase diagram having a solid-liquid coexistence region and has a given silver amount which is larger than that in the eutectic composition (3.5 wt. % silver), and the second powdery alloy has a silver amount which is that in the eutectic composition (3.5 wt. % silver) or which is close to that in the eutectic composition and is smaller than that in the first powdery alloy. This cream solder has excellent strength and thermal stability, and satisfactory bonding properties. It is based on an inexpensive Sn—Ag—Cu solder alloy. It is suitable for use as a high-temperature-side lead-free solder material conformable to temperature gradation bonding. Also provided is a method of soldering.

Nihon Handa Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
Fuji Electric Holdings Co., Ltd., Kawasaki-shi, Japan

Published / Filed: 2012-01-26 / 2007-07-03

Application Number: US2007000307370

Doping Minor Elements into Metal Bumps (US20120018878A1)

US20120018878A1: A method of forming a device includes providing a substrate, and forming a solder bump over the substrate. A minor element is introduced to a region adjacent a top surface of the solder bump. A re-flow process is then performed to the solder bump to drive the minor element into the solder bump.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., Hsin-Chu, Taiwan

Published / Filed: 2012-01-26 / 2010-07-26

Application Number: US2010000843760

New soldering iron with wire fed through it for one-handed operation

WO2012011699A2: The present invention relates to a pencil-type solder, and the pencil-type solder of the present invention comprises: a soldering unit (50), into which a lead wire (3) is inserted, for heating the inserted lead wire (3) and discharging same in a molten state; and a control unit for controlling the quantity of the lead wire (3) or the speed of insertion thereof. According to the present invention described above, a driving motor and a transferring roller supplies the lead wire to the tip of the solder at a constant predetermined speed, thereby providing the advantage of, for example, easily fixing the area to be soldered using tweezers with the left hand while holding the solder in the right hand to allow precise soldering.

ULIMCONTROL Republic of Korea153-704
News, Profiles, Stocks and More about this company

Published / Filed: 2012-01-26 / 2011-07-14

Application Number: WO2011KR0005196

Use of ultrasonic to melt solder and bond two glass surfaces

WO2012012745A2: The present invention relates to a solder- or metal- based hermetic sealing system for glass plates useful in solar cells based on silicon, organic systems, and thin layer solar cells as well as other electronic devices such as organic LEDs (OLED).

The inventors herein have discovered that binding two glass plates by ultrasonically activating a low-melting solder between the glass plates can result in a hermetic seal. With proper choice of a glass frit dispersed in the solder and proper choice of glass compositions of the substrates and feedthrough(s), the TCEs can be matched.

FERRO CORPORATION United States of America44114
News, Profiles, Stocks and More about this company

Published / Filed: 2012-01-26 / 2011-07-22

Pulse electroplating of Sn-Bi alloys on micropatterned electrodes for lead-free solder bumping

Scopus: Pulse plating of Sn-Bi alloys was performed in a simple binary Sn 2 -Bi 3 bath containing citric acid (CA), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and poly- ethylene glycol (PEG400) at pH = 1 under 70 of duty percentage and 10 Hz of pulse frequency on polyimide-micropatterned CuNi substrates (denoted as mPI-CN).

From the chronopotentiometric and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) studies, the edge effect of mass transport for Bi 3 resulted in the composition variation between edge and central regions. The increase in the Sn content of Sn-Bi deposits reduces the dendrite formation in the edge region. Through adjusting the concentration of Bi 3 ions and the current density of pulse deposition, uniform morphologies and compositions of Sn-Bi deposits could be obtained. From the demonstration shown in this work, the pulse plating method provided a reliable route to obtain uniform Sn-Bi alloys of high Sn contents (e.g., 80Sn-20Bi and 90Sn-10Bi) for the micro-sized lead-free solder bumping

Tsai, Y.-D., Yu, C.-Y., Hu, C.-C. , Duh, J.-G.

Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsin-Chu 30013, Taiwan

Journal of the Electrochemical Society
Volume 159, Issue 2, 2012, Pages D108-D113

Carbon nanotubes solder composite for high performance interconnect (US8100314)

US8100314: Composite paste, used in any interconnect applications such as die attachment to a package substrate, comprises a solder paste comprising solder powder and a paste ingredient, and carbon nanotubes

A bump comprising:

a solder paste comprising solder powder and a paste ingredient mixed with the solder powder; and

carbon nanotubes (CNTs) dispersed within the solder paste with a pre-defined volume fraction, wherein the pre-defined volume fraction ranges from approximately 30% to 40%, to provide high electrical conductivity; wherein the solder paste is attached to at least one of a die or a package substrate.

Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Published / Filed: 2012-01-24 / 2010-01-19

Reliability assessment of solder joints in power electronic modules by crack damage model for wind turbine applications

Scopus: Wind turbine reliability is an important issue for wind energy cost minimization, especially by reduction of operation and maintenance costs for critical components and by increasing wind turbine availability. To develop an optimal operation and maintenance plan for critical components, it is necessary to understand the physics of their failure and be able to develop reliability prediction models. Such a model is proposed in this paper for an IGBT power electronic module. IGBTs are critical components in wind turbine converter systems. These are multilayered devices where layers are soldered to each other and they operate at a thermal-power cycling environment. Temperature loadings affect the reliability of soldered joints by developing cracks and fatigue processes that eventually result in failure. Based on Miner's rule a linear damage model that incorporates a crack development and propagation processes is discussed. A statistical analysis is performed for appropriate model parameter selection. Based on the proposed model, a layout for component life prediction with crack movement is described in details.

Kostandyan, E.E. , Sørensen, J.D.  

Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Sohngaardsholmsvej 57, DK-9000 Aalborg, Denmark


Energies
Volume 4, Issue 12, December 2011, Pages 2236-2248  

Facing the Challenges of 2012 and Beyond

SMTONLINE: Do you know that many RoHS exemptions will be expiring within the next few years? RoHS, a European Union (EU) directive, restricts the use of specific hazardous substances found in electrical and electronic products. As of July 1, 2006, all applicable products in the EU market must pass RoHS compliance.

Six restricted substances are banned as hazardous to the environment and harmful to individuals during manufacturing and recycling. RoHS has specified maximum allowable levels for lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. Several product categories are impacted under the directive including appliances, electronics, communication devices, lighting and power tools.

When the directive initiated, several product categories were exempted from compliance, such as medical devices, control and monitoring equipment, and batteries. For these industries, the proposed dates for inclusion into the RoHS directive are from 2012 through 2018.

“There are still a lot of manufacturers out there who are still using these banned substances in some of these exempted products,” commented Greig. “These manufacturers really need to start finding alternatives now or they will find themselves unable to manufacture or sell their products in Europe.”