scope:

General

When Type Approval is desired, applicants are required to submit a signed Request for Product Type Approval, identifying all adopted standards by the year of their last issuance. The Type Approval Program is made up of two components, Design Assessment and Manufacturing Assessment: Design Assessment consists of:

i) Design evaluation, and

ii) Survey and/or testing of a prototype or a production unit (as appropriate) Manufacturing Assessment, which is approval of the manufacturer, consists of:

i) Management Assessment. Evaluating the quality assurance and quality control system of the manufacturing facilities in order to assess and verify their capability to meet the manufacturer's specified level of product quality consistently and satisfy the requirements of the Rules, as applicable. Two categories of quality assurance and quality control are in the Program:

• Recognized Quality System (RQS) is a system that is certified to be in compliance with a recognized standard at least to ISO 9000 series or equivalent and so certified by a recognized certification body. Equivalency will be determined on a case by case basis.

• Product Quality Assurance (PQA) is a system meeting the requirements for RQS and having additional approved procedures to allow a manufacturer to carry out tests and surveys as required by the Rules to be witnessed by a Surveyor.

ii) Production Assessment. Evaluating the product specific manufacturing process of the manufacturer in order to assess and verify that manufacture and inspections of the products are established to provide the manufacturer's specified level of quality control, to satisfy the requirements of the Rules.

The Design Assessment portion of the Type Approval Program is to be done with a signed Request for Type Approval. The request for Type Approval must be submitted for both the original and revised Design Assessments. If Manufacturing Assessment is required, as with Products being manufactured under PQA or using a PDA-DUP, it must also be requested on the application for Type Approval. The application of the Manufacturing Assessment portion can be done only in conjunction with Design Assessment.

The purposes of the Type Approval Program are:

i) To avoid repeated evaluation of identical designs,

ii) To allow acceptance of the product based on periodic surveillance of the manufacturer's quality assurance program and, where applicable, selective inspection and tests in lieu of surveying and testing individual units at the manufacturer's facility, (see 1-1-A3/5.3 and 1-1-A3/5.5) and

iii) To maintain a list of approvals and the type of approvals as defined in the Type Approval Program. These listings will be maintained on the ABS website so that the information is verifiable and available to the industry.