NHTSA's Activities Under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 1998 Global Agreement: Glazing, 7803-7804 [E8-2474]

Agencies

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 28 (Monday, February 11, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7803-7804]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-2474]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2008-0008 Notice 1]


NHTSA's Activities Under the United Nations Economic Commission 
for Europe 1998 Global Agreement: Glazing

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), DOT.

ACTION: Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NHTSA is publishing this notice to inform the public that 
there may be a vote to adopt the Global Technical Regulation (GTR) on 
Glazing at the March 2008 session of the World Forum for Harmonization 
of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29). In anticipation of this vote, NHTSA is 
requesting comments on this GTR to inform its decision for the vote. 
Publication of this information is in accordance with NHTSA's Statement 
of Policy regarding Agency Policy Goals and Public Participation in the 
Implementation of the 1998 Global Agreement on Global Technical 
Regulations.

DATES: Written comments may be submitted to this agency by March 6, 
2008.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments [identified by DOT Docket No. NHTSA-
2008-0008, Notice 1] by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to https://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC, 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room 
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue S.E., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. Telephone: 1-800-647-
5527.
     Fax: 202-493-2251
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
docket number for this proposed collection of information. Note that 
all comments received will be posted without change to https://
www.regulations.gov including any personal information provided. Please 
see the Privacy Act heading below.
    Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all 
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on 
April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit https://
DocketInfo.dot.gov.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov and follow the 
online instructions, or visit the Docket Management Facility at the 
street address listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Ezana Wondimneh, Division Chief, 
International Policy and Harmonization (NVS-133), National Highway 
Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, 
DC, 20590-0001; Phone (202) 366-0846, Fax (202) 493-2280.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: At the March 2004 session of WP.29 the 
formal proposal to develop a GTR on safety glazing, sponsored by 
Germany, was adopted with a modification to restrict the scope of the 
GTR to glass-based safety glazing. An informal working group chaired by 
Germany was subsequently established to develop the GTR. In October 
2004, NHTSA docketed the draft GTR proposed by Germany (69 FR 60460, 
60462; October 8, 2004), but received no comments. At the November 2005 
session of WP.29 AC.3 further agreed that the GTR would not include 
installation provisions and that the informal working group could 
consider possible approaches to including certification markings in the 
GTR. However, it was later decided by WP.29 that a separate informal 
working group would be tasked with examining the issue of markings for 
all GTRs. Therefore, the glazing GTR only specifies the required 
markings to identify the type of glazing material without reference to 
certification type markings. Contracting parties to the 1998 Agreement 
will be able to require additional markings for identification of 
manufacturer and the regulation(s) the glazing is manufactured to 
comply with.
    On October 10, 2006, NHTSA published a new notice that described 
the progress made on the agency's GTR activities including the glazing 
GTR (docket number NHTSA-2003-14395). The notice included the draft 
GTR, provided discussions on several key issues, and requested public 
comments. A comment with regard to the GTR was submitted by Pilkington 
North America that sought to clarify an incorrect citing of the test 
procedures concerning light transmittance and optical distortion, which 
has since been addressed.
    The latest draft of the GTR specifies performance requirements for 
various types of glazing (i.e., laminated and toughened glass) intended 
for installation in Category 1 and 2 vehicles as defined in Special 
Resolution No. 1. The requirements apply to glazing as an item of 
equipment, and do not include installation requirements for vehicles. 
Performance requirements for some of the materials vary depending on 
whether the material is intended for installation as a windscreen or a 
pane. The draft includes requirements and tests to ensure the 
mechanical strength, optical qualities and environmental resistance of 
glazing.
    Four sets of tests and requirements for mechanical properties are 
under consideration in the GTR: a fragmentation test, a 227g steel ball 
impact test, a 2.26kg steel ball impact test and a 10kg headform impact 
test. Each of the first three of these tests was adopted from widely 
used procedures currently in effect, with small differences, in all 
three national regulations examined for this GTR (European, Japanese 
and U.S. safety regulations). The fragmentation test proposed in the 
draft GTR is based on the current European approach, except that it was 
modified to use two different impact forces depending on the design of 
glazing being evaluated. The 227g and 2.26kg steel ball impact tests 
are also very similar to the existing national regulations examined--
with the exception of the drop height for the small ball test. Based 
upon analysis conducted by Japan, which determined that the force from 
a drop height of 2.0m replicated the force of a typical object that 
impacts a pane, it was decided that a drop height of 2.0m could be 
specified. The headform test (which is currently in the European and 
Japanese national regulations, but not in the U.S.) under consideration 
for the GTR specifies one drop height (1.5m), instead of retaining the 
two separate drop heights currently found in the European and Japanese 
regulations because the purpose of the second height drop was already 
addressed in other tests specified in the GTR. Also, the headform test 
is an optional requirement in the GTR. Each contracting party to the 
1998 Agreement can decide whether or not to apply this provision in 
national/regional law.
    Three types of optical qualities are addressed in the GTR: light 
transmission, optical distortion and double imaging. The minimum light 
transmittance level for glazing requisite

[[Page 7804]]

for the driver's forward field of vision is 70 percent, per U.S. and 
Japanese regulations, rather than 75 percent required in European 
regulations. This is supported through a cost-benefit analysis, which 
shows no perceptible difference in light transmission and savings in 
energy usage. The light transmission test procedure used in the GTR was 
adopted from the European and Japanese test procedures, because they 
are based on the driver's field of view and thus better approximate 
normal driving conditions. For the other optical quality tests, the 
main differences between the standards and regulations examined were 
not the requirements but just the test procedures. These differences 
were resolved by selecting the European and Japanese test procedures 
for the same reasons mentioned above.
    The GTR also includes environmental resistance requirements related 
to temperature change, fire, chemical resistance, abrasion, radiation, 
high temperature and humidity. The first four of these were common to 
all the examined regulations. The remaining three requirements had 
minor differences, which the GTR resolved by selecting the best 
alternatives. For example, in the case of resistance to radiation, the 
major difference between the American and European approaches is that 
the former specifies 100 hours exposure, using a specified radiation 
source, while the later specifies 100 hours of exposure at 1400 W/m\2\. 
Since the European procedure ensures a constant level of exposure and 
allows for alternative sources of UV radiation during testing, it was 
deemed more flexible and was thus selected for the GTR.
    In July 2007, NHTSA received comments on the draft GTR from the 
Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Glazing Committee. In October, 
the agency made recommendations to the informal working group to 
implement some of the SAE comments into the GTR. The comments accepted 
in the GTR included editorial corrections, clarifications to Part A of 
the draft GTR (the technical rationale and justifications section), 
adding a definition for ``Uniformly toughened-glass'', and clarifying 
what would be considered a sharp edge for the fragmentation test. 
Several other points were not incorporated since they fell outside the 
scope of the GTR, were not relevant or already addressed in previous 
notices, or could not reasonably be pursued without conducting lengthy 
additional research and validation testing that is not supported by the 
majority of the Contracting Parties to the 1998 Agreement. SAE's 
comments can be found in the docket of this notice.
    The informal working group submitted the draft GTR to the Working 
Party on General Safety Provisions (GRSG) for consideration at the 
October 2007 session. The October 2007 session of GRSG voted to 
recommend the GTR to WP.29. The GTR is expected to be voted on at the 
March 2008 session of WP.29. In anticipation of this vote, NHTSA 
requests comments on the draft GTR. The draft GTR that will be 
considered can be found in the docket for this notice.
    Once the GTR is established through consensus voting at WP.29, 
NHTSA will initiate domestic rulemaking to amend its existing FMVSS to 
incorporate approved provisions of the GTR. This will allow for further 
opportunity to consider comments from interested parties through the 
usual rulemaking process. If NHTSA's rulemaking process leads it to 
either not adopt or to modify aspects of the GTR, the agency will seek 
to amend the GTR in accordance with established procedures under the 
1998 Global Agreement and WP.29, as it recently did with the door lock 
GTR.

    Issued on: February 5, 2008.
Stephen R. Kratzke,
Associate Administrator for Rulemaking.
 [FR Doc. E8-2474 Filed 2-8-08; 8:45 am]
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