Strict and Substantial Requirements

Manufacturers are required to test a sufficient number of randomly selected samples to ensure that products which are not tested would in fact meet the standard if they were tested. How many products should be sampled and tested are determined by the manufacturer’s quality assurance/quality control program approved by SEI.

NOCSAE defines level-3 as a class of protective equipment where a functional failure presents a risk of grave and irreversible injury or death. For manufacturers of this level equipment the NOCSAE standards require the manufacturer’s QC/QA program establish a 95% confidence level that 99% of all products produced will meet the NOCSAE standard.

There are no sport, protective equipment standards that require this level of compliance. The consequence of such a high level of compliance means that a product will probably have to score in the 600 to 800 range for SI values on all test impact locations to be at least three standard deviations below the 1200 SI pass/fail value.