Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards Call for Changes
Rob Houglum ZIPGlassNetwork.com Wednesday, April 04, 2012
 There are latest changes to the Fed. Motor Vehicle Safety Levels that relate to our industry and I presumed I might give you an alert. These changes are not going to radically change the way we install auto glass, but will intensify the need for proper installations.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 111 Mirrors
This standard hasn't changed for more than a decade. The key changes which happened ten years ago were the "break-away" mirror mounting and the 90 square in. rule for big over-the-road lorries. The break-away mirrors rule, as you recall, is the rule that the mirror mounting must permit the mirror to break away from the windshield surface with a force of approximately 90lbs. The 90 square in. rule applied to passenger cars for a short while, but changed to only include wagons over 10,000 gross car weight ( GVW ). It stated that a mirror with a surface of ninety square inches or less must be convex.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 205, 208, 212, 214
These standards have not changed at all and needn't waste your time on the particulars.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 216 Roof Crush
This is the standard that has changed the most. In May of 2009 the National Road Traffic and Safety Administration ( NHTSA ) published its new FMVSS 216a. It had been a major change for the ones that tested vehicles so time was given to design and build the testing equipment. NHTSA also has a phase in plan for auto makers to build up their autos to meet the new standard. Here are the changes :
There are 2 fiftieth percentile dummies placed in the two front seats to measure the effect of roof crush to the head area.
The test is now performed on each side of the automobile and not just on the driver side.
A vehicle is in compliance when the roof doesn't surpass five inches in aberration and the dummies' heads are not impacted with over fifty lbs of force.
There are two different systems of testing depending on the vehicle weight :
A. If the vehicle has a GVW of less than 6,000 lbs, the roof must bear 3 times the unloaded car weight ( UVW ) ;
B. If the auto has a GVW of more than six thousand lbs, but less than 10,000 lbs, the roof must withstand 1.5 times the UVW.
The Phase-in was given to makers to reduce the burden of these new standards. To be in compliance the automobile makers have to meet this schedule :
A. Less than 6000 lbs,
I. 25 p.c compliance by Sep 1, 2012
Ii. 50 % compliance by Sep 1, 2013
Iii. Seventy five p.c compliance by September one, 2014
Iv. A hundred p.c compliance by September 1, 2014
B. More than 6,000 lbs and less than 10,000 lbs.
I. One hundred % compliance by Sep 1, 2016
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 219 Passenger Compartment Intrusion
This standard no longer exists. It was removed as the modern day designs of vehicles are constructed to reassure passenger compartments are the sanctuary during a crash. The govt felt it didn't need to state the most obvious and removed the whole standard.
These changes are the most wide-reaching change to the FMVSS in years, as it applies to our industry, and the phase-in starts this year. Will this make us change the way we install? No, not especially. But it will make us think carefully about how and what we do and how it will affect the general crashworthiness of our customers' vehicles.
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