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NEWS: New Paint Booth Regulations Coming
Bulletin
From State Auto to Members & Agents
By: Neil Stufft -
AVP/Director of Custom Insurance
Due
to changes in the auto body collision repair industry, the following is an
update to bring some of these changes to your attention.
The
auto collision repair industry faces a number of challenges from economic,
legal and technical forces. For
example, the universe of repairable autos is actually shrinking due to the
prevalence of extremely low priced autos and the high expense of repairing
air bag systems. The additional
expense of air bag systems forces many damaged autos into constructive
total loss status.
Changes
in technology have also changed the auto body collision repair
industry. Paint technology has made
it necessary for shops to have different spray equipment for the new
materials that increase efficiency and reduce wasteful overspray. Newer paints may contain isocyanates,
which can cause industrial asthma with exposure, which makes new protective
equipment necessary.
One
of the greatest recent changes has been in the regulations regarding spray
paint booths. These booths, when
properly designed and constructed, assure a clean, filtered environment to
apply spray finishes with high quality results as well as protect people
and property from accidental fire and explosion.
Recent
changes to the International Fire Code and the National Fire Protection
Agency (NFPA) codes that the vast majority of states and local
jurisdictions use now mandate that spray paint booths and mixing rooms have
automatic fire suppression systems. This is a substantial change, resulting
in greater protection of spray painting operations, and increases in the cost of the spray booth
system. Existing manufactured booths can often be retrofitted with
automatic suppression systems, but even that expense can be high. These systems fall squarely in the realm
of life safety of those who must work in and around the spray painting
operations, where explosive fires are rare but very severe.
The
U.S. EPA has made a new rule, National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air
Pollutants (NESHAP) that mandates by
January 10, 2011, those that engage in spray applications to motor vehicles
must comply. These standards also
mandate a spray booth that contains and filters the emissions from spray
operations, as well as spray guns that comply and training to the operators
of the equipment. The point of this
regulation is to protect the environment, but it does mandate the use of an
approved spray paint booth. A
summary of these regulations may be found on the Internet at these links: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/area/paint_stripb.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/area/autobodybs.doc.
IMPORTANT
NOTE FROM GLAA: For environmental and safety reasons,
requirements for auto body finishing operations have become more
complex. GLAA Members and their SA
Agents must ensure that shops that do spray finishing comply with these
standards, not only to avoid injury to employees and losses to our paint
shops but to protect the business and livelihoods of all involved during
these difficult times..
TECH TIPS:
Uniform Tire
Quality Grading
Comparative
grade designations for treadwear, traction and temperature for all
passenger car tires, except deep tread, snow
tires; spares; or tires with rim diameters of 12-inches or less
come under the NHTSA standards as defined below. For how to read tire
designations jump to the bottom of the page for information contained on
tires.
 HOW TIRES ARE RATED.
NHTSA rates the
quality of tires based on three criteria: temperature, traction and
treadwear.
TEMPERATURE.
Letter grades are used to rank tires for heat resistance, graded
"A" (highest); "B," or "C" (lowest). A
"C" grade represents the minimum performance standard required by
Federal regulation. Currently, 27 percent of tires are rated "A;"
59 percent are rated "B;" and 14 percent are rated "C."
A tire’s ability to resist heat is an important safety factor. Tires driven
long distances in hot weather can deteriorate, leading to rare instances of
tread separation and blowouts.
TRACTION. Also rated with
letter grades. A tire that carries a higher grade should allow a car to
stop on a wet road in a shorter distance than a tire with a lower grade.
Traction is graded "AA" (highest); "A;" "B,"
or "C" (lowest). A "C" grade can indicate poor
performance. Currently, 3 percent of tires are rated "AA;" 75
percent are "A;" and 22 percent are "B." There is only
one "C" rated line of tires.
TREADWEAR. A
control tire is assigned a grade of 100. A tire with a grade of 200 can be
expected to last twice as long as the control tire, while a tire with a
grade of 80 is normally less durable. Currently, the highest reported
treadwear rating is 700; 98 percent of tires rank 600 or below; 92 percent
rank 500 or below; 72 percent rank 400 or below; 40 percent rank 300 or below;
and 15 percent rank 200 or below.
TIPS AND QUESTIONS
If you
have a question or tip you’d like to post to this page please forward it to
the webmaster at info@glauto.org.
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