{"operation":"document","citation":"12-0138","title":"Southeast Testing and Engineering — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation","source_type":"guidance","agency":"Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration","status":"guidance","official":true,"published_on":"2013-01-07","effective_on":null,"summary":"12-0138 response to Southeast Testing and Engineering concerning 178.601.","machine_formats":{"json":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-12-0138.json","markdown":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-12-0138.md"},"app_url":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-12-0138","source_url":"https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretations/2012/120138.pdf","body":"<<<PAGE 1>>>\n\nU.S. Department\nof Transportation\nPipeline and Hazardous\nMaterials Safety\nAdministration\n1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE\nWashington, D.C. 20590\nJAN 0 7 2013\nMr. Charles Radev\nPresident and Chief Executive Officer\nSoutheast Testing and Engineering\n1325 Capital Circle, Suite D\nLawrenceville, GA 30043\nReference No. 12-0138\nDear Mr. Radev:\nThis is in response to your June 25, 2012, and July 19, 2012 e-mails and telephone calls\nand your August 9, 2012 telephone call with a member of my staff requesting clarification\nof the testing requirements for Large Packagings under the Hazardous Materials\nRegulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180). Specifically, you ask how to properly test a\nfiberboard, UN 50 GW Large Packaging under the HMR that is authorized under the terms\nand conditions of Competent Authority (CA) Approval CA 2006030023. You state this\npackaging contains Packing Group II, \"UN 0336, Division 1.4G,\" and \"UN 0337, Division\n1.4S\" fireworks that the shipper places in a variety of inner packagings and configurations\nin response to customer orders. You also state these packages are shipped from China to\nthe United States (U.S.) by vessel, and from a port area in the U.S. to customers in North\nAmerica by motor vehicle and/or railcar. Further, you state testing all possible\nconfigurations of the packaging and preparing the test report on each are time consuming\nand difficult. You ask if the packaging can be tested once in a manner that accommodates\nall the shipper's packaging configurations.\nThe answer is yes. Normally, under§ 178.601(c)(4), any change to the structural design,\nsize, material of construction, wall thickness or manner of construction from the originally\nproduced and tested packaging, unless specifically excepted, meets the definition of a\n\"different packaging\" and requires new design-type qualification testing. However, the\nterms of CA 2006030023 do not contain specific requirements for inner packagings except\nthat they must be \"suitable for retail sale\" and in \"plastic-wrapped boxes and plastic bags\n[that] are suitable inner packagings.\" Therefore, only a representative sample of fireworks\nmust be tested and not every possible combination of items.\nThe enclosed test report you provided states the outer packaging is a fiberboard UN\n50GW/Y250/S/USA Large Packaging that is surrounded in a polyethylene, shrinkwrap\noverpack, and the entire package is attached to a wooden pallet. The test report also states\nthe inner packagings consist of one large, multicolored fiberboard store display box,\ncomposed of interlocking panels and trays that form up to 10 multi-level, cabinet-like\n\n<<<PAGE 2>>>\n\nlower compartments and 1 open tray-like top with several vertical dividing interlocking\npanels. In addition to photographs of the above-described packagings, the report includes\nphotographs of the fireworks, both individually and grouped together and enclosed in\npolyethylene film, and engineering drawings of the packagings authorized under CA\n2006030023.\nWe note that CA 2006030023 is valid until January 31, 2013. The Pipeline and Hazardous\nMaterials Safety Administration (PHMSA) incorporated UN 50 Large Packagings into the\nHMR on October 1, 2010, in a rulemaking issued under Docket No. PHMSA-06-02536\n(HM-231; 9/30/10, 75 FR 60333), but did not authorize these packagings to transport\nexplosives. PHMSA has issued Special Permit DOT-SP 15615 that allows a Large\nPackaging to be tested as a non-bulk packaging for fireworks, but it is authorized for\ndomestic transportation by motor vehicle only. If your customer wishes to continue to\ntransport the fireworks it manufactures by vessel and rail in bulk fiberboard packagings,\nyour customer should contact PHMSA' s Approvals and Permits Division at (202) 366-\n4511 to initiate a new special permit or to modify an existing one. The requirements to\napply for or modify a special permit are prescribed in 49 CFR Part 107, Subpart B,\n§§ 107.105 and 107.121, respectively.\nI hope this satisfies your request.\nSincerely,\nT. Glenn Foster\nChief, Regulatory Review and Reinvention Branch\nStandards and Rulemaking Division\n2\n\n<<<PAGE 3>>>\n\nFrom: Charles Radev [mailto:chradev@setelab.com]\nSent: Monday, June 25, 2012 6:02 PM\nTo: Edmonson, Eileen (PHMSA)\nSubject: Re: Test Message\nDear Eileen,\nThank you very much for the opportunity to talk with you on the phone today.\nMost of all I appreciate your effort to support us with fact-of-matter information on which to base our\ndecision for testing in the future.\nMy question has to do with the report requirements for firework displays in a 50G large Package.\nThey are usually packaged as an interlocking corrugated display made of corrugated trays and panels\nwhich form a cabinet-like lower level and an open pyramid shaped display on top. We may have up to\nten different product (shrink wrapped corrugated) trays , then a variety of open top trays with smaller bags\nor folding cartons of firework items in them, then a few clear bags and other cartons or just straight\nbundles of fireworks - cylinders, rectangular, pentagonal, etc, etc. It would seem that the creativity of the\nChinese has found its fulfillment in making everything colorful and different in shape and size to the\nextreme.\nWhile this provides joy to the consumer, it makes our effort in describing and documenting this whole\npackage immense beyond reasonable measure.\nThe latest item I had to certify took me about 5 hours to test and over 50 hours to produce report. In\ndoing so I reflected and produced drawings of all corrugated items, with dimensions (both inside and\noutside), weights (tare and full weight), and liner combinations. The total number of items described on\nthe report was 32. All of those have drawings in attachment.\nOur question is - once the corrugated structure of that display and the pallet is described in the detail, how\nmuch more detail is really meaningful and significant as far as all the tray and bag dimensions,\nthicknesses, shapes, the little folding cartons, the firework cylinders and rectangles - how much meaning\ndoes this carry? If you saw one of these and tried counting how many different items there are on one of\nthese you would very possibly count a few dozens.\nWe know that in the end all that fireworks are is spiral wound paper tubes filled with gunpowder with a\nthread for sequential ignition going through all the little tubes.\nWhat would be the acceptable level of detail on our reports for such a vast multiplicity of items like in\nthis case?\nVery respectfully,\nCharles Radev\nThank you for your business!\nCharles Radev, President, CEO\nSoutheast Testing & Engineering\nPhone: (678) 886.4864 Fax: (678) 377.1234\n1325 Capital Cir. Suite \"D\" Lawrenceville, GA 30043\n----------------------\n--~","truncated":false,"body_characters":6754}