Amended FQA would ease burden
By Industrial Distribution Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 6/1/1999
Industry leaders are optimistic that amendments to the Fastener Quality Act will sharply narrow the number of fasteners covered by law and exempt firms that are already quality certified.In a recent report to Congress, the Commerce Department recommends that the FQA of 1990 be altered to limit coverage to high-strength fasteners. Without the changes, which the House approved and appeared set to pass the Senate in May, the old FQA is scheduled to finally be implemented on June 24. Officials have predicted it would disrupt just-in-time manufacturing.
Distributors and suppliers made suggestions to make the law more workable and emphasize good business practices. Amendments would streamline paperwork and recognize many manufacturers' quality management systems, and also target fraud in commercial transactions where a distributor or manufacturer knowingly misrepresents a fastener.
"It dramatically changes the focus to fraud," says Robert Harris, managing director of the Industrial Fasteners Institute. "It reduces the scope of fasteners covered under law, so a lot of the focus on fraud would protect safety and at the same time not be detrimental to the industry."
Fasteners that would remain covered by FQA are high-strength, through-hardened and grade-identified. High-strength fasteners mean those with a minimum tensile strength of 830 millipascals (120,000 pounds per square inch), the generally accepted level for "high-strength" steel fasteners throughout the industry.
Still covered would be bolts, nuts, screws, studs or direct tension-indicating washers that have a nominal diameter of 5 millimeters (0.25 inch) and greater; manufactured to standards and specifications of consensus standards organizations or government agencies that requires a grade mark; and meet the minimum specified tensile strength criterion.
Companies with quality management systems -- ranging from the straightforward ISO 9000 to more rigorous automotive QS900 -- would mostly be exempt. The criterion includes fasteners that are manufactured in a facility registered by a NIST-approved body to use such a system.
To be registered, the quality system must use advanced product quality planning, monitoring and control of manufacturing processes, show a written control plan with a quality assurance standard, manufacturing records, show traceability of raw material, and traceability of subcontracted processes.
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