Boron Free Drawing Lubricants and
Coatings for the wire drawing industry.

On the 21st August 2008 the European Commission adopted the Dangerous Substances Directive 2008/58 EC, (30th ATP). This became law on the 5th October 2008.

This Directive obliged all Member States of the European Union to implement into National Legislations such laws and regulations as were necessary to enforce the Directive no later than 1st June 2009. Amongst these provisions it was required that all products manufactured in, or imported into Europe containing more than 6.5% of Borax Pentahydrate would have to be labelled as "Toxic".

On the 20th January 2009 a further EU Regulation (1272/2008) came into force. This is in relation to the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Chemical Substances (CLP) which is a globally uniform labelling system for hazardous substances, to be implemented worldwide. This regulation implements new icons for use on labels and Material Safety Data Sheets in the European Union.

With the implementation of the CLP –Annex 1 the previous Regulations have been superceded.

This 1st ATP (transfer of the 30th ATP) to amend Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 was approved by the REACH Committee on 25 March 2009. It was published in the Official Journal on the 5th September 2009 and became law 20 days after publication (25th September) from which date it has been incorporated into Annex VI of the CLP. The final date for compulsory classification will be 1st December 2010.

On the 18th of June the ECHA added Boric acid and Sodium Borates on the candidate list of substances of very high concern.

Link to the official press release :
http://echa.europa.eu/doc/press/pr_10_12_candidate_list_20100618.pdf

Once the new labelling is obligatory all the Risk Management Measures must be complied with. At the moment we cannot state exactly what these measures will be and what the precise storage and handling conditions will be.

For Germany the current occupational exposure limit values for boric acid and sodium borates are set out in the TRGS 900 Regulations which can be viewed (in German) using the following link.
TRGS

For regulations in other countries you should contact the relevant Governmental Health and Safety Body.

At Traxit we have been working for some time to meet this challenge and have already developed several boron free products. In order to protect our workers and our customers Traxit has decided to remove all borates from its dry lubricant range and cease delivery of boron containing lubricants with effect from 2nd Quarter 2010.

Detailed information you can find on this link.

BORAX Brochure

On this website you will find our latest developments in lubricants and coatings totally free from boron compounds.