The Development of a Global Technical Regulation for Vehicle Tyres

摘要

The development of a Global Technical Regulation for tyres to be fitted to vehicles for use on normal roads is a result of initiatives by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) under the terms of the 1998 Agreement, referred to as The Global Agreement, and to coincident discussions between the European Community and the United States of America as part of the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue. As a result of the latter, the tyre industry reviewed many of the existing tyre regulations world-wide and produced a comprehensive proposal for a global technical standard which has been used as the basis for discussion of a regulation to be applied universally. The advantages should result in cost benefit to industry in terms of having to meet only one set of technical requirements and to the consumer in terms of improved safety benefits. The principle of the regulation is that all types of tyre and all relevant aspects of tyres with regard to their identification, performance and installation will be found in one regulation. However, this is being approached on a stage by stage basis and the first stage will deal with tyres primarily designed for use on passenger carrying vehicles with up to eight passenger seats. The layout of the regulation is such that it can be easily expanded to include tyres primarily designed for use on vehicles for the carriage of goods or greater numbers of passengers and for tyres primarily designed for use on motorcycles. The fact that a tyre is primarily designed for use on a given type of vehicle does not prevent its use on another type if the provisions to which the tyre has been tested are suitable for the in-service duty of the vehicle. The present stage of the draft regulation contains a set of core requirements which are considered to be applicable to all territories and should be mandatory, plus annexes containing optional, but harmonised, requirements for aspects of tyre performance which may be important only in certain territories. Examples of the optional requirements are tyre grip in wet conditions, tyre to road noise emissions and tyre rolling resistance. The core requirements include harmonisation of the identifying markings for tyres, particularly the duty for which the tyre is suitable, tyre size designations, and load and speed capabilities. Construction requirements include control of the dimensions of newly produced tyres with respect to the outside diameter and section width in order to ensure interchangeability of tyres having the same size designation but produced by different manufacturers. These controls will take account of the growth of the tyre in service by checking the dimensions either during or immediately following one of the dynamic performance drum tests. The currently specified performance tests, which are based on the industry review of today's best practice, may be subject to change in the light of in-service tyre problems being experienced in some markets. At present there are requirements for carcass strength, bead unseating and both high and low speed load/speed endurance tests depending on the tyre structure. Tyres which comply with the various requirements of the regulation will be identified by a certification mark indicating such compliance. There are two main regulatory control procedures applied globally; third party type approval, which has been typical throughout Europe for many years, and self-certification, which is practised in the United States of America and other regions. Type approval involves the testing of products by independent third party bodies and the assessment of manufacturing control. In addition the system includes a Conformity of Production procedure which ensures that the product continues to be manufactured in conformity with that originally approved. The draft regulation attempts to address the different procedures by means of a separate annex dealing with the type approval process. To address concerns regarding the cor