CPSC Proposes New Safety Standards for Automatic Residential Garage Door Operators to Address Entrapment Hazards
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a proposed rule that would amend 16 CFR Part 1211, Safety Standards for Automatic Residential Garage Door Operators, to reflect the revised garage door entrapment provisions of Underwriter Laboratories, Inc. (UL) standard UL 325.
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Written comments must be received no later than February 20, 2007.
(UL recently revised UL 325 in response to a request from CPSC staff. The staff identified several incidents in which children became entrapped beneath a garage door that had been left partially open. In most of these incidents, a child tried to crawl under the partially open door and became stuck under the door. A bystander pressed the wall control button thinking the door would go up and release the child. Instead, the garage door moved down compressing and further entrapping the child.)
Proposed Requirements for Automatic Residential Garage Door Openers
CPSC proposes new requirements for automatic residential garage door openers as follows (partial list):
Door to reverse minimum 2 inches when stop control is actuated, etc. CPSC proposes, among other things, that when a control is actuated to stop the door during upward travel, the door would not be allowed to move downward until the operator reverses the door a minimum of 2 inches (50.8 mm).
This proposed requirement would apply to (1) operators of downward moving residential garage doors, (2) operators using an inherent entrapment protection system that monitors the actual position of the door, (3) operators using an inherent entrapment protection system that does not monitor the actual position of the door, (4) operators using an external entrapment protection device, and (5) inherent force activated secondary door sensors.
Proposed testing requirements. CPSC proposes that for compliance with the above proposed requirement, test operators would be required to place a solid rectangular object measuring 4 inches (102 mm) high by 6 inches (152 mm) wide by a minimum of 6 inches (152 mm) long on the floor of the test installation to provide a 4-inch (102 mm) high obstruction when operated from a partially open position.
Proposed addition to instruction manual. CPSC also proposes to insert a new instruction 4, "NEVER GO UNDER A STOPPED PARTIALLY OPEN DOOR," to required instruction manuals.
Proposed Effective Dates
CPSC proposes that the instruction manual provision in the CPSC standard would become effective when it is published as a final rule.
For all other proposed provisions in the CPSC standard, CPSC proposes an effective date of February 21, 2008, which sources state includes the proposed testing requirements.
-Written comments must be received no later than February 20, 2007.
CPSC Contact - John Murphy (301) 504-7664
CPSC proposed rule (FR Pub 01/18/07) available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-580.pdf