The Revised ASTM F963 Toy Safety Standard: What s Changed and What you Need to Know

Transcription

1 The Revised ASTM F963 Toy Safety Standard: What s Changed and What you Need to Know Alan Kaufman Senior Vice-President, Technical Affairs The Toy Association January 10, 2018 Hong Kong

2 Changes impact numerous sections. Revisions aim to clarify requirements, enhance existing requirements, plus some new requirements ASTM F published October 20, 2017 by ASTM; notified to CPSC November 1, 2016 Under CPSIA, revised standard becomes mandatory consumer product safety rule for all toys sold in the US, with CPSC approval, 180 days after notification of publication by ASTM. CPSC approved and published direct final rule on February 4, 2017, with a 30-day comment period; no negative comments received by March 6, 2017, so standard became effective April 30, 2017 applying to all toys manufactured on or after that date).

3 Affected sections (among others): Acoustics Batteries Heavy elements Magnets Projectiles REVISED Microbiological Safety Ride-on Toys Toy Chests Miscellaneous technical issues NEW requirement: Expanding materials

4 Acoustics: Format and sequence changed to more closely align with EN71 Continuous/Impulsive sound distinction no longer made; now aligns with EN71-1:2011 +A3:2014 Adds a definition for push/pull toys; measurement speed changed to 1 m/s Close-to-the-ear toy limits revised to correct error in 2011 revision; Cycle definition clarified Measurement distance and microphone height aligned with EN71-1:2014

5 Battery-operated Toys/Batteries: New definitions have been added to define batteries and cells. A new warning label has been added for certain button and coin cell batteries of nominal 1.5 volts or greater to alert consumers to hazards that have been identified with these cells. Added temperature and current-limiting requirements for lithium-ion and Ni-MH batteries used in toys

6 Battery-operated Toys/Batteries (cont): Protection circuitry required for both batteries and chargers to prevent short circuits, overcharging, and overheating that can result in battery venting, fire, or explosion. Add four new test methods for toys that contain rechargeable cells and batteries including battery overcharging test, repetitive overcharging test, single fault charging test and short circuit protection test. Compliance with referenced battery standards may be established by appropriate documentation rather than third-party laboratory testing

7 Expanding materials: Adds a requirement for materials and toys which may expand if ingested Prescribes test methods and acceptance criteria for such materials Addresses problematic products without failing items which have not created issues Applies to as-received small parts of expanding material

8 Heavy Elements: In 2011 edition of the standard requirements for heavy metals in substrates were added edition clarifies some of the earlier requirements for more consistent interpretation (e.g., clarifying amendments for fabrics and stickers) Adds an option for use of HD-XRF technology as an alternate test method for total screen testing (for homogeneous polymers)

9 Impaction hazards: Provides clarification to the requirements and supplemental guidance for impaction hazards Magnets: Changes to align with ISO and EN requirements Adds a soaking test and compression test Revises the gaussmeter tolerance specification

10 Microbiological Safety: Adds an alternative CTFA test method to supplement current USP methods Adds a requirement for avian feathers Clarifies which products are subject to challenge testing Prescribes specific pass/fail criteria for cleanliness and challenge testing, to aid consistent interpretation of results Specifies minimum set of challenge organisms

11 Projectiles: Revision of ASTM F Changes to align with ISO 8124 and some EN71 requirements Addition of requirements for non-stored-energy projectiles Added requirements for mouth-actuated projectile toys Added requirements for projectiles that have foam darts and/or suction cups (adding 57 mm length requirement for suction cup projectiles) Use of gauge for leading edge radius measurements of rigid projectiles The allowable kinetic energy density (KED) was aligned with ISO requirements 2500 J/m 2 (for projectiles with energy >0.08J) Other miscellaneous changes

12 Ride-On Toys: Adds a strap exemption for ride-on toys Clarifies the existing overload and stability requirements Adds temperature and current-limiting requirements for lithium-ion batteries used in ride-on toys

13 Toy Chests: Reinstates the requirements for Toy Chests within ASTM F963 (they had been removed in the 2011 edition, however US CPSC considers the requirements part of mandatory ASTM F963 standards under CPSIA and so these requirements have been reinstated) ASTM F834 standard for Toy Chests (identical requirements) has been withdrawn to avoid redundancy.

14 ASTM F Status ASTM notified CPSC of publication of revised standard on September 1, 2017 Staff recommended and Commission voted in November to accept standard with exception of added clarifying phrase for push/pull toys in acoustics section (5) TA believes this to be due to misinterpretation of 2016 revision by staff CPSC issued direct final rule to be effective for products manufactured on/after February 28, 2018 unless significant adverse comment received Toy Association has submitted same; presumably DFR will be withdrawn Product Safety

15 ASTM F Status (cont) Changes in 2017 edition are largely editorial in nature, with two exceptions: Acoustics of push/pull toys clarification Insertion of phrase (mistakenly omitted from 2016 revision) to limit KED requirement to stored-energy projectiles with KE greater than 0.08J Product Safety

16 Thank you! Questions/Discussion?