Voting Actions & Standards Activity

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The Standards Committee takes voting action to advance new standards, and to make changes to established standards, according to rules outlined in the NOCSAE bylaws and ANSI policies and procedures.

Standards Statuses

    • Proposed New

    Elevation to Proposed status, which happens by Standards Committee vote, formalizes the input process and usually results in a meeting of interested parties.

    Each standard is held in Proposed status for a minimum one-year period. During this time all interested parties are encouraged to comment. Comments must be submitted in writing to the Executive Director. Prior to submitting comments, interested parties are welcome to discuss their comments with either the Research Director or Technical Director.

    • Final Standards

    A vote by the Standards Committee to elevate a standard to Final status signals that the formal input period has been completed and the standard has reached its final form. However, modifications and revisions (defined below) are ongoing as needed for all NOCSAE standards.

     

    Types of Standards Actions

    • Modifications

    Modifications to standards documents are editorial changes and do not need committee approval. Their purpose is usually for clarification. A list of modifications can be found at the end of each standard.

    • Revisions

    Revisions to standards documents require action by the Standards Committee. If approved, a revision becomes effective 12 months after the vote unless a different implementation date is established.

    Revisions are changes to standards that alter a critical test or performance parameter which could affect a pass/fail outcome. Revisions include, but are not limited to, changes to any of the following: headform, characteristics, drop heights/velocities, environmental conditions, anvil and/or impact surface characteristics, severity index (SI) limits, pass/fail criteria, number of impacts, impact location, instrumentation.

    Implementation of a revision requires a 2/3 vote of the Standards Committee. A list of revisions can be found at the end of each standard.

    • Reaffirm, Withdraw or Revise

    Standards that have been in effect for four years without a revision or modification require action by the Standards Committee. Standards can be reaffirmed as is, withdrawn, or revised.

    Effective Dates

    When an existing standard is revised, the Standards Committee is required to provide an effective date for that revised standard. The primary purpose for an effective date is to specify when a licensee’s products must be in compliance with the revised version of the standard. Although it is permissible for a licensee’s new products to be certified in compliance before the effective date of the revised standard, new products do not have to be in compliance until on or after the effective date.

    The existence of a revised standard does not affect the certification of products already sold or in use.

    Other NOCSAE Documents

    Procedural guides are provided for informational purposes only. Changes to procedural guides do not require action by the Standards Committee.

    NOCSAE Document Numbering

    Each NOCSAE document (ND) has a unique document number (NDXXX). After the document number there is a hyphen and further notation (NDXXX-YYmZZ) to mark the year the document was last revised (YY). The year following the “m” is the year the document was last modified (ZZ or ZZa, etc.). For example document number ND001-17m23 was last revised in 2017 and it was last modified in 2023. A list of revisions and modifications can be found at the end of each standard.