HEARD IN THE CHANNEL

RoHS recast approved
The Council of the European Union officially approved a recast of the RoHS directive, extending the scope of the EU’s ban on hazardous substances to include more products and harmonizing it across the EU.  The council made the announcement in a May 27th press release.

The recast extends protection from dangerous chemicals to more electrical appliances and improves the safety of products such as mobile phones, refrigerators and electronic toys, the council said.

The ban now extends in principle to all electrical and electronic equipment as well as to cables and spare parts. Some categories of products will be phased in over the next several years: monitoring and control devices and medical devices will be covered in three years, in vitro medical devices in five years, and industrial control appliances in six years.

There are also exemptions to the rule. For instance, photovoltaic panels do not have to comply with the restriction and energy-saving light bulbs are temporarily exempted.

For more information on the revised RoHS directive, see the text of the recast. Detailed information is also available on the legislation page of the element14 online community.

Premier Farnell launches element14 knode, Avnet SpeedWay Design Workshops begin next month, and more industry news

Premier Farnell launched the element14 knode, an online design platform for engineers that supports the complete design flow from concept to final production. The program allows engineers to research, design, develop and prototype manufacture in a single, intelligent environment. The knode is one more step in Premier Farnell’s mission to provide engineers with design solutions, drive business to the Web and support growth in emerging markets, the company said.

Avnet Electronics Marketing launched a series of SpeedWay Design Workshops featuring the recently released, low-cost Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA LX9 MicroBoard. The first leg of the global technical tour kicks off in Chicago  next month and continues on to more than 20 cities across the Americas before heading to Japan and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Class size is limited; registration for sessions in the Americas is open now.
European electronics distributor Acal Technology has acquired Hectronic, an embedded computer distributor based in Sweden. Hectronic will become part of Acal’s electronics business and a subsidiary of AcalBFi Nordic. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
RF Industries said it will acquire Long Island, N.Y.-based Cables Unlimited Inc. for approximately $5.6 million. The deal is expected to close this month.
Future Lighting Solutions, a division of Future Electronics, launched a Chinese language version of its Web site, www.futurelightingsolutions.com to serve customers in the expanding Chinese solid-state lighting industry.
RS Components and knitter-switch have collaborated to develop a knitter-switch microsite set to debut on the RS Components Web site this week. knitter-switch makes all kinds of switches, includes toggle, rotary, dual-in-line, slide and push-button models.

New and expanded distribution agreements
Here’s a look at some of the most recent and newly expanded distribution partnerships:

Avnet Memec will become the pan-European distributor of Echelon’s commercial markets product line for device and system manufacturers effective July 1. Echelon’s energy control network products are used in more than 100 million devices and 300,000 buildings worldwide.

In other Avnet news, Avnet Electronics Marketing and Aldec Inc. have a new agreement in which Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia will promote and distribute Active-HDL (Designer Edition), Aldec’s mixed-language FPGA design creation and simulation product.

Digi-Key and Orion Fans announced a new agreement in which Digi-Key will distribute Orion’s line of standard and custom ac and dc fans, fan trays and accessories to customers worldwide. Digi-Key also announced a global agreement with Lattice Semiconductor in which it will sell Lattice’s complete portfolio of innovative, low-cost FPGA, PLD and programmable power management design products.

America II Electronics announced a new agreement with AMIC Technology Corp. to distribute AMIC’s full line of memory ICs, including parallel and serial NOR Flash, SRAM, SDRAM and DDR products, as well as non-memory devices such as LED lamps.

European distributor Rutronik and LCD panel and module maker U.R.T. have expanded their distribution agreement to include northern Europe.

Future Electronics and Philips Lumileds extended their exclusive worldwide distribution agreement, which includes the Luxeon line of LEDs.

Master Distributors announced that it is now stocking Crydom’s new Series of DIN rail-mounted AC and DC output solid state relay (SSR) assemblies, the DRS series of DIN rail sockets, and the new 3-Phase and AC Motor Reversing SSRs .

Specialized distributor RFMW, Ltd and semiconductor company RFaxis, Inc. announced a new distribution agreement for the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa effective this month.

Heilind Electronics announced that it now stocks Amphenol Industrial’s Helios H4 Panel Connectors for photovoltaic systems.

Farnell has expanded its agreement with enclosure manufacturer Hammond Manufacturing to include a wider range of small enclosure products for European customers.

PEI-Genesis announced an agreement with Emerson Network Power to distribute power supply products from Emerson’s Embedded Power business to customers in North and South America. 

Brothers Electronics named Mike Prince general manager; Prince is a 15-year veteran of the small electronics distributorship based in New Jersey.

EVENTS
Upcoming channel events include CARTS Europe and the ECIA Executive Conference:

CARTS Europe
Oct. 10-13, 2011
Nice, France
http://www.ecaus.org/CARTSEurope/2011/abstracts/

ECIA Executive Conference
Oct. 23-25
Chicago
Intercontinental Chicago O’Hare Hotel
http://www.eciaonline.org/meetings/calendar.aspx

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