METRIC IMPORTERS OF NORTH AMERICA -- FQA LINKS
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The huge volume of FQA related information has become large enough to require that this page be restructured.
Please use the 'what's here' index to aid in your navigation.

WHAT'S HERE INDEX: (revised 08/26/00)


Statement Index of various parties and organizations about the FQA:
NIST ACCREDITED LABORATORIES LISTING. This is the latest NIST published list of FQA accredited labs:
As of July 15, 1998 there were only 290 labs accredited. Please note that many areas of the world have very few or no labs accredited. Particularly western europe, one of the major fastener suppliers of the world, has only 5 labs in the UK, 3 of which are commercial and only 6 in the rest of continental Europe. None of the labs in continental Europe are available for commercial work.
It is also interesting to note that of the total of 290 labs which NIST has approved, 41% (119 labs) are not located in the USA. Of the 171 labs located in the USA only 15.8% (27 labs) accept commercial work. Here again the NIST estimate of 425 labs needed to service the fastener industry will prove grossly inadequate if only a small percentage of those labs can accept commercial work.
updated 6/24/98: . . . BULLETIN . . .
FQA IMPLEMENTATION DELAYED
90 DAYS UNTIL OCTOBER 25, 1998!
NIST finally admits that there will be an insufficient number of laboratories accredited.
See the full text of the NIST announcement here.

updated 8/23/98:

BULLETIN
FQA IMPLEMENTATION COULD BE DELAYED AGAIN
UNTIL MID 1999 PER P.L.105-234!
On March 23, 1998 ABEP approved 3 more accreditation bodies (orgnizations which grant certication authority to individual labs.) --

    1 .Chinese National Laboratory Accreditation (CNLA), Hsinchu, Taiwan
    2. Comite Francais D'Accreditation (COFRAC), Paris, France
    3. Deutsches Akkreditierungssystem Prufwesen (DAP), Berlin, Germany

To date there have been no announced FQA approved labs from two of the three newly approved accreditation bodies. DAP finally announced its first approved lab on June 5, 1998. If past performance is an indicator, then it may be quite some time before we see many approved labs from these newly announced accreditation bodies. For example the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), Ottawa, Ontario Canada, which was approved by ABEP on December 19, 1997, has finally announced their first approved labs on June 5, 1998.

At the National Industrial Fastener Show, FQA seminar-- Columbus, Ohio -- May 17, 1998; NIST stated that there were only 4 companies on the QS9000 listing. MINA will publish more info on them as soon as we can get it from NIST.
update 5/31/98: These 4 companies are not actually approved yet. They are in the NIST application stage.

update 8/23/98
NEW! FQA QS-9000 SELF DECLARED PROVISIONAL LISTING STATUS:
Fastener Quality Assurance System Provisional Listing  On July 23, 1998 NIST finally released this long promised listing (MINA had been asking for it since May 26, 1998). Only 10 facilities are on the 8/17/98 revised listing. MINA will survey them for their in house vs commercial work status and report here. We suspect that they will all be in house facilities.
MINA has also resubmitted its questions to NIST about several of our concerns about product liability and product recalls from these provisionally approved facilities in case they do not receive fully certified status by the NIST deadline.

Geographical summary of all FQA approved labs.
See the MINA lab survey summary. This summary is revised as the data becomes available.
The geographical breakdown by country follows: Note: this listing is updated through July 20, 1998

BY COUNTRY/REGION
Location Labs
USA 171
Japan 70
Taiwan 21
Canada 11
United Kingdom 5
Germany 3
Brazil 2
India 2
Italy 2
Korea 2
Holland 1
Totals 290
Grand total from all accreditation bodies as of 7/15/98 290

Summary of NIST approved labs that will accept commercial work.
See the MINA commercial lab survey summary. This summary is revised as the data becomes available.
The geographical breakdown by state follows: Note: this listing is updated through July 20, 1998

Commercial Labs by State Commercial Labs by Country
CA 3 USA 27
CT 1 Brazil 1
IA 1 Canada 0
IL 2 Europe (continental) 0
IN 3 India 0
MI 4 Japan 10
MN 1 Korea 0
MO 1 Taiwan 3
NJ 1 United Kingdom 3
OH 3 . .
PA 5 . .
TX 1 . .
WV 1 . .
Totals: 27 Totals: 44

If your state or country is not listed above then plan to have additional transportation costs and incur additional delays in order to have your products tested. Do not forget the additional customs duties if you need to send your product to another country for testing.

It appears that NIST may not make the stated goal of 425 accredited labs by May 26, 1998 as in: "U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology Implementation of the Fastener Quality Act (15 CFR 280 Doc. No. 960726209-7088-02 Rin. No. 0693-AA90)" The full text of the regulation is at: Implementation of the Fastener Quality Act.
4/15/98 update: ALERT -- NIST Announces 60 day delay for FQA: see below.

BULLETIN: FQA EFFECTIVE DATE POSTPONED UNTIL JULY 26, 1998 & NIST PUBLISHES FINAL REGULATIONS.

NIST Press Release:
NIST PUBLISHES FINAL RULE FOR FASTENER QUALITY ACT, EXTENDS IMPLEMENTATION DATE UNTIL JULY 26, 1998:

THE FASTENER QUALITY ACT: text of the actual law ( Public Law 101-592 as amended by Public Law 104-113 )

TEXT OF FINAL RULE FOR FASTENER QUALITY ACT: raw text from federal register

SUMMARY OF FINAL RULE FOR FASTENER QUALITY ACT: raw text from federal register

TEXT OF FINAL RULE FOR FASTENER QUALITY ACT: NIST organized text by group
TEXT OF FINAL RULE FOR FASTENER QUALITY ACT (PDF format):

This NIST organized text by group, in Acrobat PDF format is also available for downloading as a viewable/printable Acrobat PDF file. (Warning: it is about 187 pages long so have plenty of paper available if you are going to convert it to printed form.)
[ Download by clicking here ]

If you do not have the Proper Acrobat Reader software, then follow the instructions below: GET ACROBAT

  • Download the free acrobat reader software from the: [Acrobat download page]
  • Then use your back button to return to this page.
    • updated May 21, 98
    Final Decision -- The final list of Consensus Standards Organizations approved by NIST . . . . Notably absent are many members of ISO including some members from some of the largest countries! At the FQA seminar held in Columbus, Ohio on May 18, 98 there was verbal confirmation from Dr. Subhas Malghan of NIST that if the consensus body was NOT on NIST's final listing, then the standards issued by those bodies are not covered by the FQA.

    See the MINA e-mail correspondence file about the final list of recognized standards organizations.


    updated: April 18, 1998
  • Link to: US PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE FQA FORMS AND INFO: There are about 4000 industrial fastener distributors, 7800 industrial distributors, and 37000 machine shops just in the USA. These totals do not include all the fastener manufacturers in the USA plus the hundreds of fastener manufacturers abroad and the thousands of machine shops abroad.
    According to Mr. Roger Drexler of the PTO, as of Mid-March 1998 only 600-700 companies have applied for and been granted the necessary FQA head marking identification numbers and trademarks. The PTO is currently discussing whether to publish these listings on the internet. MINA has purchased a copy of the latest edition of these listings which are due to be released in April, and will post that data here when it is received. If PTO does publish the listing on the internet then we will post the appropriate link here.

  • Updated 4/18/98: MINA has now received a copy of the listings. As of 4/2/98 there were 697 approved registrations covering 428 companies/organizations. MINA has published the listings at: PTO HEAD MARKING REGISTRATION LISTING (this is the older 4/2/98 edition -- see below for the revised edition)

    • Updated 5/23/98: We have been informed that a newer listing is now available for purchase from the PTO. We will publish the update here when it is received. According to Mr. Ari Leifman of the PTO; they still have no plans to publish the listing on the internet themselves.

    Be aware that FQA certified fasteners that require headmarkings according the their standard or specification can only have PTO approved markings.

    updated 7/6/98, rev 7/12/98:
    BULLETIN

    MINA has now received a copy of the revised head marking listings through June 23, 1998. The last one was dated 4/2/98. Read on to see why this date becomes critically important! We will try to publish the listings later this week.

    The update has now been published by MINA.
    Click here for the June 23, 1998 head marking listings.
    MINA has now received a copy of the listings.
    As of 6/23/98 there were 884 approved registrations covering 552 companies/organizations.
    Please be patient. This is a large file and will take a bit of time to load.

    There will be a new category in our PTO head marking listings. PTO is now advising which head marking listings which had been previously approved but are now no longer valid (inactive). Just one more important item that you must be aware of before you offer any product that conforms the FQA regulations!
    (As of late June 1998, PTO still had not made the decision to publish this head marking information on the web.)

    This brings up some very interesting questions:

    What is your legal liability for offering FQA approved product from a supplier that was approved by NIST when the product was originally sold, but the supplier has now been de-listed?

    If PTO does not make the de-listing information immediately and publicly available, can the BXA prosecute you for not knowing that the supplier was de-listed?

    What happens to the saleability of product in the marketplace which carries a de-listed head marking?

    How can you know that the product was originally made and sold while the head marking was still on the approved list?

    There are many more questions that this latest 'Gotcha' from NIST will bring to light. Lets hear your questions [ e-mail to MINA webmaster ] on this matter so that we can throw them at NIST!

    . . . .
    MINA PRESS RELEASE LINK: See the latest (8/23/98) by Bonnie G. Carter, MINA Coordinator
  • A list of MINA questions submitted to NIST 4/26/98 page: . . . . See the answer link below.

  • 5/20/98 NIST Answers to MINA FQA questions sent ON 4/26/98: A must read!

  • MINA designed; NIST approved format for section 280.5 (c) Manufacturers Certificate of Conformance form.

  • MINA designed; NIST approved format for section 280.11 (a)(3) Significant Alteration Notification form.

  • Updated 5/31/98:
    Aircraft industry has bill introduced into congress to exempt themselves from parts of the FQA. Updated details on H.R. 3824 introduced into congress on May 11, 1998 and S. 1325 amendment introduced into congress on May 22, 1998:

    See the MINA home page for the latest updates on the FQA congressional actions.


  • Link to: Statement of David Edgerly, Deputy Director, Technology Services, National Institute of Standards and Technology Before The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation United States Senate July 28, 1993 showing the original intent of legislation would cover only about 1% of fasteners, not the approximately 50% - 75% now covered.


  • Link to: SAE/PRI INFORMATION PAGES ON THE FQA:

    •  See the threatening comments of the BXA representative.
    NOTE: PRI (Performance Review Institute is an affiliate of SAE)

  • Link to: SAE/PRI FORUM ON THE FQA:


  • Link to: Executive Summary of the FQA as prepared by PRI:


  • Link to: PRI -- Industry Management of Distributors on the FQA and the FAA Advisory Circular AC 00-56 prepared by Performance Review Institute National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP):


  • Link to: The Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) Licensing and Enforcement of Export Controls and the Fastener Quality Act


  • Link to: Fastener Quality Act Approved/Recognized Accreditation Bodies Listing


  • Link to: SUMMARY OF PUBLIC MEETING -- USE OF QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEMS IN THE FASTENER INDUSTRY, February 4, 1997, TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, GAITHERSBURG, MD


  • Link to: NIST -- THE ACCREDITATION BODY EVALUATION PROGRAM (ABEP)


  • Link to: European Commission -- REPORT ON UNITED STATES BARRIERS TO TRADE AND INVESTMENT 1997


  • Link to: DOE REPORT -- suspect/counterfeit items (S/CI) -- See section: 4.4 Other Organized Activities (as of 8/2/98 this link no longer works.)


  • Link to: American Society of Mechanical Engineers, (ASME International) -- Letter to NIST about: Consensus Standards Organization Under the Fastener Quality Act


  • Link to: CAMCAR TEXTRON'S -- Common Questions and Answers regarding the Fastener Quality Act.


  • Link to: UL's (Underwriters Laboratories) commentary on the Fastener Quality Act.

  • Link to: Written Testimony Submitted to the Hearing Concerning H.R. 145 The Aircraft Repair Station Safety Act of 1997 on Thursday, October 9, 1997 Before the Aviation Subcommittee of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the United States House of Representatives. (see the last paragraph)


  • Link to: North American Free Trade Agreement Comments: InfoExport, the International Trade Web site of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). The InfoExport Web site is designed to help Canadian companies in their efforts to export. Applicable text follows:
    "At the federal level, the United States' increasing use of mandatory standards to achieve regulatory objectives (e.g., the Fastener Quality Act, mandatory labelling standards for textile products and a proposal to require country of origin marking in the principal display panel for frozen vegetables) is of concern to Canada. Canada continues to engage in a constructive dialogue with the United States, principally in the NAFTA Committee for Standards Related Measures, to urge that regulatory burdens on industry be reduced."


  • Link to: Final Communique of The 1997 TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) Conference that was held on November 6-7 in Rome, Italy.(as of 8/2/98 this link no longer works.) Applicable text follows:
    "Fasteners: Industry is aiming at creating a harmonised EU-U.S. system to assure the quality and safety of industrial fasteners with global harmonisation as the ultimate goal. The fastener manufacturers believe that existing international standards provide the necessary assurance of fasteners quality and safety. The implementation of the U.S. Fasteners Quality Act (FQA) should be postponed until such internationally recognised standards are covered by the regulation. The FQ regulations should eliminate any possible discriminatory provision between EU and U.S. suppliers/manufacturers, for instance in the form of request for extra documentation to be presented as a condition for customs clearance."

  • Link to: SCC (Standards Council of Canada) seeks to nail down fastener accreditation . . . Applicable text follows:
    "U.S. legislation that threatens to put the screws to Canadian manufacturers has prompted the Standards Council of Canada to launch a new accreditation program for laboratories that inspect and test fasteners, the material used to make them, and the manufacturing process. Regulations under the U.S. Fastener Quality Act, which take effect May 27, require nuts, bolts and other fasteners that are sold commercially to conform to certain specifications. Manufacturers, distributors and importers must be able to produce evidence of conformity and show that their products have been tested in an accredited laboratory according to standardized test methods. The law could nail Canadian manufacturers, who export about $1 billion worth of fasteners to the United States every year; however, it offers a market opportunity for Canadian laboratories, provided they can receive the proper accreditation. The Act obligates accreditation bodies to meet the requirements of the Accreditation Body Evaluation Program (ABEP) managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The Standards Council had hoped that it would be recognized as an accreditation body thanks to its existing agreements with NIST. However, it learned in October that it would be required to participate in ABEP, whose requirements go well beyond the international guidelines that form the basis of the Standards Council's accreditation programs. As a result, the Standards Council has made fasteners a specialty area within its Program for Accreditation of Laboratories - Canada (PALCAN) and is moving quickly to meet ABEP's requirements. The program is being developed in co-operation with the Canadian Fastener Institute. In keeping with PALCAN's policy of cost recovery, laboratories that contribute to the cost of establishing the accreditation program - so far, eight laboratories are participating - will receive priority attention when PALCAN begins to conduct accreditations."

  • Link to: Arent Fox Alert -- New Proposed Regulations Address Automotive Industry Concerns Regarding The Fastener Quality Act


    • updated 11/10/97: Please pay attention to the NIST proposed QAS PROPOSED RULE amendments to the FQA. The comment period expired on November 7, 1997.
    We will try to publish the results from the comment period as they become available.

    updated: April 15, 1998
    See the July 26, 1998 implementation date delay items for some of the results.

    We welcome any suggested FQA related links, and we will try to include the links to them in our pages. Also please advise the webmaster of any outdated links or links which have moved.
    Please send email to webmaster

    CONTACTS AT: METRIC IMPORTERS OF NORTH AMERICA

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