Fujitsu moves to RoHS compliant touch panels

Fujitsu Components America Inc . announced it will begin converting its touch panel products to RoHS lead-free compliant status to meet customer environmental needs. The changeover is expected to be complete by the end of the year. (RoHS stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances, a European Union regulation.)

Modifications will affect all products in the company’s 4- and 7-wire resistive touch panel line. Panels will be manufactured with a gold-plated, flat flexible cable, replacing current tin-lead plated flex cable. The new devices are essentially drop-in replacements for the company’s existing touch panels; however, a gold-plated connector is needed to terminate the gold-plated flex tails to prevent corrosion at the connector contact points.

Lead-free touch panels will have new part numbers to differentiate them from existing products. Pricing will be similar to current offerings. Products include film-glass and film-film-plastic touch panels in sizes from 1.9 to 17.3-in diagonal for a variety of applications, including PCs, portable instrumentation, automotive, and process control.

For more about RoHS, search the term RoHS on the Control Engineering Web site. Related reading includes “ Lifecycle Environmentalism .”

—Jeanine Katzel, senior editor, Control Engineering, jkatzel@reedbusiness.com

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