[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 75 (Friday, April 18, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 19041-19042]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-10208]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

15 CFR Part 280

[Doc. No. 960726209-7088-02]
RIN 0693-AA90


Implementation of the Fastener Quality Act

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 
Commerce.

ACTION: Extension of implementation date.

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SUMMARY: The Director of NIST, under authority delegated by the 
Secretary of Commerce, and pursuant to Section 15 of the Fastener 
Quality Act (Act), (Pub. L. 101-592 as amended by Pub. L. 104-113), has 
determined that by May 27, 1997, the current implementation date of the 
Act, there will not be a sufficient number of laboratories accredited 
to conduct the level of required testing. Accordingly, the Director is 
extending the implementation date of the Act by one year, to May 26, 
1998. NIST will amend 15 CFR 280.12 to reflect this new implementation 
date in a future document. By May 26, 1998, NIST believes it will have 
completed the approval/accreditation of a sufficient number of 
accreditation bodies/laboratories to implement the Act. The total 
number of laboratories to accredit by the new date of implementation is 
estimated to be four hundred twenty-five. To accomplish the task of 
getting these laboratories accredited prior to May 26, 1998, NIST 
requests all accreditation bodies seeking approval under the NIST 
Accreditation Body Evaluation Program (ABEP), all laboratories seeking 
accreditation under the NIST National Voluntary Laboratory 
Accreditation Program (NVLAP), and all laboratories seeking 
accreditation from accreditation bodies approved or pending approval by 
ABEP submit their completed applications to the respective programs by 
August 1, 1997, in order to be given full and fair consideration for 
approval/accreditation by the new implementation date.

DATES: The date of implementation of the Act is May 26, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Subhas G. Malghan, NIST, Building 820, Room 306, Gaithersburg, MD 
20899; Tel. No. 301-975-6101; Telefax 301-975-2183; E-mail 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Fastener Quality Act (Act), (Pub. L. 
101-592 as amended by Pub. L. 104-113), requires that certain fasteners 
sold in commerce conform to the standards and specifications to which 
they are represented to be manufactured and have been inspected, 
tested, and certified. Inspection and testing mean that the 
manufacturer of a lot of fasteners shall cause to be inspected and 
tested a representative sample of the fasteners in such a lot to 
determine whether the lot of fasteners conform to the standards and 
specifications to which the manufacturer represents it has been 
manufactured. Such inspection and testing shall be performed by a 
laboratory accredited in accordance with the procedures and conditions 
specified by the Secretary under Section 6 of the Act.
    In accordance with Section 15, the requirements of the Act shall be 
applicable only to fasteners fabricated one hundred eighty days or more 
after the effective date of final regulations implementing the Act 
(November 25, 1996). The Secretary may delay the implementation date 
upon a determination that an insufficient number of laboratories have 
been accredited to perform the volume of inspection and testing 
required.
    In 1991 NIST requested the Fastener Advisory Committee to address 
the issue of determining how many laboratories are needed to be 
accredited to implement the Act without adversely affecting commerce. A 
task force of members studied the issue and prepared a report to the 
full Committee which was accepted by the Committee and by NIST. The 
report concluded that between three hundred twenty-eight and four 
hundred fifty-seven accredited laboratories would be required to 
implement the Act.
    Both NVLAP and ABEP began their review of applications for 
accreditation on November 25, 1996, the effective date of the 
regulations. There has not been a great volume of applications to date. 
NIST believes there are several reasons for the initial slow response:
    (1) Laboratories wanted to wait and see which laboratory 
accreditation bodies would receive approval under ABEP before 
determining whether to apply to NYLAP for accreditation or to another 
accreditation body. The cost of becoming accredited and the fact that 
some laboratories already have been accredited by a body applying to 
ABEP for approval were factors in their decision process.
    (2) With the amendment to the Act that allows raw material 
suppliers to certify the chemistry of the metal used to manufacture 
fasteners, fastener manufacturers are now urging their metal suppliers 
to become accredited even though the Act and regulations do not require 
the raw material suppliers to do so. The reason is that a large number 
of fastener manufacturers rely on a ladle analysis of the metal and 
this can only be obtained while the metal is being manufactured at the 
mill. The metal suppliers have been slow in applying for accreditation 
because their customers, the fastener manufacturers, did not initially 
request them to do so.
    At present forty-two laboratories have applied to NVLAP to be 
accredited and four laboratory accreditation bodies have applied to 
ABEP to be approved. NVLAP expects to complete accreditation of the 
forty-two by September 1997. Approximately another fifteen laboratories 
have indicated they will apply to NVLAP, and these applications will be 
processed by January 1998. ABEP intends to complete approval of the 
four laboratory accreditation bodies by September 1997. Once approved 
these bodies will be working on accreditation of their populations of 
laboratories. These four bodies, plus NVLAP, already have approximately 
three hundred twenty-five laboratories that have either been accredited 
for fastener testing or indicated that they will seek accreditation. 
NIST estimates that the accreditation bodies will finish their work on 
this population of three hundred twenty-five laboratories by April 
1998. Based upon expressed interest to ABEP, three additional 
accreditation bodies are expected to apply for approval soon and will 
bring an additional seventy-five laboratories whose recognition and 
accreditation will proceed simultaneously and be completed by May 26, 
1998. In addition, the four accreditation bodies undergoing approval 
process now are expected to add at least twenty-five more laboratories. 
If these estimates are correct, the total number of accredited 
laboratories by May 26, 1998, would be four hundred twenty-five. This 
number is sufficient to implement the Act, based upon estimates 
provided by the Fastener Advisory Committee and accepted by NIST.
    The Act requires that NIST indicate steps being taken to ensure the 
accreditation of a sufficient number of laboratories. Accordingly, the 
following

[[Page 19042]]

steps have been taken or are in the process of being taken:
    (1) NIST will continue to work with relevant industry associations 
(foreign and domestic) to make them aware of the requirements of the 
Act and the need for accreditation of laboratories; and
    (2) NIST, by this announcement, is requesting a cutoff date of 
August 1, 1997, for accreditation bodies and laboratories to send their 
applications so that they can be given full and fair consideration for 
approval/accreditation prior to May 26, 1998. Applications received 
after August 1, 1997, will be considered only after completing work on 
the pre-August 1, 1997, submitted applications.

    Dated: April 15, 1997.
Elaine Bunten-Mines,
Director, Program Office, NIST.
[FR Doc. 97-10208 Filed 4-17-97; 8:45 am]
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