element14 research. refine. design.

Premier Farnell, the global distributor of electronic and industrial components, is an established authority on environmental legislation in the electronics industry. It created its Global Legislation website five years ago to provide an easily accessible source of data. With the advent of social media and Web 2.0, design engineers were kept informed of compliance updates via Twitter and LinkedIn (LegislationEye). Now with the launch of the element14 community, design engineers will be able to directly interact and converse with Gary Nevison, Premier Farnell’s Head of Legislation, and other peers to ask specific questions regarding their legislation compliance concerns.

“element14 has already attracted tens of thousands of engineers, drawn by features such as “Ask an Expert”, deep dive technology collaboration spaces, over 257 community groups, free CAD software and the opportunity to RoadTest new technologies,” said Gary Nevison. “We recognised that design engineers face challenges in accessing information about legislation as it is scattered over many different sources. element14 is the first one-stop online community built specifically for electronic engineers that supports every stage of their design process from ideation through product creation—by offering a combination of community, content and now a fully developed industry legislation portal, where engineers can find the latest updates and guides on industry relevant legislation such as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), REACH, ErP/Eco-Design and many more, all free of charge.”

Senior officials at the UK Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) have this week updated industry on the current position in regard to the RoHS and WEEE recasts and all up-to-date information is now available on element14. Gary Nevsion representing Premier Farnell and Electronics Yorkshire was the only representative from electronics distribution to attend the meeting.

element14 was a concept devised by Premier Farnell back in June 2009 for electronic design engineers looking for a stock of unbiased technical information and tool-focused services in one source to enhance their design and development capabilities . Unlike many other engineering resource websites, the eCommunity uses web 2.0 functionality to facilitate interaction, collaboration and information sharing among users,

A wealth of information and wide variety of technology materials have been made available to users, with collaboration from a variety of electronics suppliers, academics and other experts from around the globe. Once on the legislation community, users will be able to customise their profiles and display information according to their individual requirements. There is even a translation module that allows users of different languages to converse in real time. Users can also secure quotes, discover industry trends, post blogs, articles and comments in this forum – a perfect example of how social media and web 2.0 is making a real difference in the electronic distribution industry and increasing resources to further educate and allow engineers to develop technology with information that was otherwise not previously available.