Practical User Guide for the Anthesis
Compliance Data Collection Form (ACDC)
Overview
RoHS Ready understands the need for manufacturers to effectively and efficiently get their product
material data into a usable format for their customers. At the low end on the supplier chain this often
means that the manufacturers will not have access to the support tools commonly used by the OEMs.
There is an opposition of two needs here: the data needs to be gathered and generated, but the
manufacturer has very few support mechanisms and practical knowledge that will help you accomplish
this task. Only by enabling the first level manufacturers will the OEM obtain access to the data that they
so desperately require.
The Anthesis Compliance Data Collection (ACDC) excel form is a tool that can be used by the first level
manufacturers to report declarations for their products. This tool is Excel based, which is a desktop
application most people understand. Behind this Excel are macros that at the press of a button,
generate the IPC-1752A HTML output file that the OEMs will use to import this data into their support
tools. This output file is what needs to be attached to an email and delivered to the customer’s material
compliance team or imported into one of the material declaration sharing tools.
Customers of the first level manufacturers are interested in receiving a Full Material Declaration since
this provides the data to support most declarations and is the least likely to require update when a
regulation changes. For more information on this please go to; www.rohsready.org/training.html.
Where are these available
The Anthesis Compliance Data Collection (ACDC) excel form latest version is available at;
www.AnthesisCDC.com
A Practical User Guide for Anthesis Compliance Data Collection (ACDC) is available at;
www.rohsready.org/training.html. We recommend that you review this before starting to use the form.
Full Material Declaration / IPC-1752A Class D
This practical user guidance focusses on the generation of the full material declaration (FMD), called the
IPC-1752 Class D. The FMD is the declaration data format you will add to the form that indicates all of
the substances in the part, while the IPC-1752A Class D is the computer readable output of the FMD
data that you entered.
Setup the Form for use
Review the Anthesis Compliance Data Collection (ACDC) User Instructions before starting.
The ACDC form is very versatile and utilize macros. It can be adjusted by you to make any variation of
the IPC-1752A classes and IEC html outputs. Understanding this, it will be important for you to set the
parameters that you will use on the form BEFORE entering any data since there are data fields that are
not used for Class D (FMD reporting) that are required for Class C (Specific MD reporting). Data fields
will be eliminated or entries erased when changes to settings are made.
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Practical User Guide for the Anthesis
Compliance Data Collection Form (ACDC)
Before attempting to use the ACDC Form open Excel > File > Options > Add-Ins > and enable Analysis
ToolPak – VBA. Click OK to save this selection. This will enable the macros to execute when the buttons
on the Product TAB are clicked. These are very desirable features.
Obtain a clean new copy of the form. If this is difficult, go to the Business Info TAB and click the Reset
button. Determine which of the settings indicated below that you will use to make your first quick start
form. This quick start form is the one that you will use to make the declarations requested by your
supplier or for publishing in any of the support tools. You will need to name the quick start form so that
you know which Class of form you are starting with for your new declaration, (i.e. ClassDdistribution,
Class C)
Settings needed are:
On the Setup TAB
Export Signing Certificate Path – this is the location of the signing certificate that can be
embedded into the form if you have a certificate. If you have none, then leave this blank.
Substance Concentration Unit – you can select either Concentration or Mass. This means that
when working on the substances the form will be expecting you to be entering the distribution
of them as the either the % concentration of each substance in the material of as the actual
mass of each substance in the material. This is important since if you are making your
declarations calculating the grams of the substances you will need the setting as Mass and if the
form is set for Concentration the fields will not work for you. See Training Module #208 for
guidance.
On the Business Info TAB
Template Settings Check Boxes – Check the boxes for Distribution Form and Class D (or Class C if
applicable). The distribution form check will indicate that the Customer data will NOT be
entered on this form. This is data that is not required to generate a usable declaration and is
not used by your customer, since they know who they are.
Format(*) – Verify that IPC 1752A is indicated. If not, check in the box and select it from the pull
down.
Language – Verify that English is indicated. If not, check in the box and select it from the pull
down.
Sign Exported XML – If you indicated the Export Signing Certificate Path earlier than check this
box, otherwise it should not be checked.
Legal Statement – If your legal department has text they want you to use, click the Type (*) box
and select Custom, then paste in your text. Otherwise the standard text is used.
Supplier Acceptance(*) - Verify that Accepted is indicated. If not, check in the box and select it
from the pull down.
Supplier information – Enter you data for the Company Name(*), Authorized Rep(*), Email(*),
Phone(*). Response Date and Document ID will be entered later and ID may not be used if you
desire.
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Practical User Guide for the Anthesis
Compliance Data Collection Form (ACDC)
Field Lock – This box is not used, no check mark.
Contact Name(*), Contact Email(*), Contact Phone(*) may be entered now if these will mostly
remain the same for all declarations to customers.
This completes your setup of your first quick start form. Save this form using a descriptive name so that
you know which one you are using. Some people may only use 1 form (i.e. ClassD form). If you need
variations of this form you can later open this ClassD form and save it to another name and make
changes to the Setup above. Remember to make the file name significant.
Entering Your Data
ACDC Form Structure
The ACDC form has a tab oriented structure for the data entries. There is an example file available that
will make the description below more understandable. Go to www.RoHsReady.org/training.htlm to get
the ACDC Example file. (shown in Class D).
The product data entry starts with the Products TAB, which obviously is where the product level data is
entered. Then next to the Products TAB you will notice the SubProducts TAB. The piece parts of your
product are entered on the Subproducts TAB. These would be the fasteners, bracket, covers, labels,
cables and such.
Then next to the SubProducts TAB you will notice the Homogeneous Materials TAB. The materials of
the piece parts of you product are entered on the Homogeneous Materials TAB. These would be the
base metals, finishes, paints, laminates, and such. On the Homogeneous Materials TAB you will notice
the first column on the Left is labeled SubProducts. If you click on Left cell in the row 5 you will see a
pull down box that shows all of the SubProducts that were indicated.
This is the method used by this form to link the Homogeneous Materials to the correct SubProducts.
You will notice that for each material indicated there has a link back to the SubProducts. This same
concept is used for the Substances TAB. On the Substances TAB you will notice the first column on the
Left is labeled Homogeneous Materials. If you click on Left cell in the row 5 you will see a pull down box
that shows all of the Homogeneous Materials that were indicated. This is the method used by this form
to link the Substances to the correct Homogeneous Materials. You will notice that for each substance
indicated there has a link back to the Homogeneous Materials. If the links are missing then when the
XML is generated there will be items missed in the output. See Training Module #207 for helpful
guidance on this structuring.
You need to start work on a new declaration
If you need to make a new declaration, find the best of your quick start templates to begin. Open the
template and save it appending the part number to the file name.
Start with the Products TAB, which obviously is where the product level data is entered. The fields that
require data are:
Requester Item Number
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Practical User Guide for the Anthesis
Compliance Data Collection Form (ACDC)
Requester Item Name
Unit(*), this can be Each, cm, cm2, cm3, Liter, Meter, m2, m3
Effective Date, this is the date you made this declaration effective or approved
Mfr Site, which if you sites made the part
Mfr Item Number(*), your part number
Mfr Item Name, you name of the part
Mass(*), weight of the total part, not added packaging
UoM(*), select either g, kg, mg
Don’t forget to save the file as you work on it, by the part number, and declaration class if needed.
You have existing declarations to import
If you have existing declarations in IPC 1752-2 v1.1, IPC 1752A or IEC62474 files these can be imported.
Open the ACDC template and save it appending the part number to the file name. On the Business Info
TAB there are several Rectangular Buttons. Click the Import button to launch the process of loading an
existing file in the XML format. This is a great method to utilize the work that you completed earlier and
now needs an update. Remember to complete the updates that are needed for the old format
declaration. Check to make sure the data needed is all complete. Don’t forget to save the file as you
work on it, by the part number, and declaration class if needed.
Generating the declaration to deliver to your Customer
You have several options for generating the declaration to deliver to your customer.
1. Send the excel ACDC temple with your information completed. This will get the data to you
customer in a human readable format. Then your customer can Export the HTML file and move
it to their archive.
2. Send the exported HTML file. This gets the computer readable file to your customer in the
smallest size file. Unless your customer has a tool like ACDC they will most often not be able to
edit your file.
Storing the completed forms for later use and update
As indicated earlier, in several sections, we recommend that you name the files with the part number
and if you use several class declarations use that also. This allows you to find the declaration and either
send it to another customer or made the needed updates without starting over.
You can store the files as the excel template or as the HTML, since ACDC will import the HTML if needed.
Labor Saving Methods
Fill in the Header than Save for later use
The section above “Setup the Form for Use” is step one of the process. You save these templates. Then
later when you need to complete a declaration go to the best match template and start “Entering Your
Data”.
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Practical User Guide for the Anthesis
Compliance Data Collection Form (ACDC)
Fill in the Level(*) before Substance Name(*) and CAS Number
On the Substance TAB, when you change the Level(*) from the pull down box, the data in Substance
Name(*) and CAS Number are erased. Enter the Level(*) first to avoid rework. If this is not possible,
there is a work-around. Before updating the Level(*) copy the data in the Substance Name (*)and CAS
Number from your spreadsheet into Notepad then paste the data back into the cells after updating the
Level(*) cell information. To copy the data to Notepad, select the data in the Substance Name(*)and
CAS Number cells that you need to save, and Copy in Excel. Open Notepad and Paste the data into
Notepad. Confirm that you have copied the needed data before starting the Level(*) cells effort. After
the Level(*) cells update, go into Notepad and select all of the data there, Copy the selected data. Go
into Excel and move your cell selected to the top cell in Substance Name(*), then Paste into the cells.
Confirm that you have pasted all of the needed data into the correct cells and have not overwritten or
missed any. Save your updated file.
Copy a part declaration to reuse the data for a similar part
If you have families of parts that are the same declaration then you can format the file name as 123456-xxx or 123-456-(100-300) so that you know with parts are included in this one declaration.
Some parts are used by your customer by the length, area, or volume can use the Unit(*) field on the
Product TAB. You customer would then indicate if they use 27 cm, 2.7 m2, or 0.0002 L for your product.
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