Frequently Asked Questions

Will my documents be held in confidence?

The American Bureau of Shipping has always maintained a policy of complete cooperation with those involved in the administration of justice and will continue to do so in the future. However, the confidential relationship between a professional and his/her client must be protected against the unwarranted invasions of competitors and prospective suitors insofar as they are unwilling to comply with the formalities of the established body of justice. For this reason, the American Bureau of Shipping has consistently refused to disseminate unpublished information acquired by it as a representative of its clients except where a client has given his/her consent to the release of information or where disclosure is required by judicial order, governmental order or regulation, subpoena or direction of a governmental agency with subpoena power.

Who may apply for ABS Type Approval

The ABS Policy on Approval of Equipment and Spare Parts is that ABS requires the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to demonstrate to ABS the compliance of the equipment and its parts with the ABS Rules. Any modifications of an ABS approved design must be at the approval of the OEM.

What is the Policy and Procedure for an Original Equipment Manufacturer, to subcontract their ABS Approved Products

A Product Design Assessment (PDA) may only be issued to the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM); this is the person or legal entity that has legal or patent rights to produce the material, component, product or system.  (In the European Union the manufacturer is a person or legal entity responsible for placing a product on the Community market.)  The OEM will be responsible for the continued compliance of the PDA as approved.  In those instances when the OEM requests to license or outsource the PDA, the Technical Staff will issue "Duplicate" PDAs as requested.  

ABS will only consider the duplication of a PDA in association with a Manufacturing Assessment of the secondary manufacturer or distributorship.  If the MA certificate lapses, the duplicate PDA will also become invalid.

The owner of the original PDA must give ABS an e-mail (or letter) authorizing the use of their PDA by another company.

The receiving company must confirm that they accept the PDA and recognize that primary control belongs to the original company.  The receiving company must also confirm that they have received copies of or have acces to the ABS approved drawings. 

If the secondary PDA is for a distributorship, an attending Surveyor must verify that the product is received in an unaltered state from the manufacturer and stored in that condition until it is shipped to the purchaser.  Therefore, the Surveyor need only verify the receiving, storage and shipping controls of the distributor.

If the secondary PDA is for a manufacturing process, the attending Surveyor must conduct a full initial audit and confirm that the secondary manufacturer has copies of all ABS approved drawings associated with the PDA and that the plant can consistently manufacture the product in accordance with the PDA.  Where the parent company or licensor has an effective control system over the licensee operation, the same may be considered to adjust the scope of each audit.  The initial audit would not change.  The frequency would be the same but the focus might be verifying the effectiveness of the control.  To achieve the latter, some elements of the normal audits must be maintained and the control is sampled.

Do my subcontractors require an ABS audit?

When ABS understands that a manufacturer  will be "outsourcing" a portion of their product to a controlled supplier, and finishing, final inspection, packaging, and shipping is done at the manufacturer's facility, and the manufacturer is an ISO 9001:2000 facility; it WILL NOT be necessary for a controlled supplier to have an ABS Manufacturing Assessment conducted at their facility.  Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2000) makes the manufacturer responsible for auditing and controlling their suppliers.

Why does my design certificate have a different validity date from my Confirmation of type Approval?

The ABS type Approval Program is modeled after the EU's MarED program. Both require a certificate for design and a certificate for manufacturing that together define the product as being type approved. In the EU program, each product must be issued both certificates. When a second approval is done; an individual Design Module is required, while the second product may be listed on the manufacturing Module.

Due to the expired time between the issue of the certificate of design and the first opportunity for a Surveyor to witness a type test of the product, It is virtually impossible to synchronize these dates . Once a client starts to add more products, then the problem arises of when to conduct the audits of the individual manufacturing assessments.

In order to streamline the ABS Program, we made one certificate of management valid for all similar products that have a valid certificate of design. In this manner the manufacturer has the flexibility to add or remove products from his portfolio without affecting the status of the remaining products. Therefore, each individual listing that you see will have as a minimum a Product Design Assessment. The dates of validity for these products will vary according to the date they were issued.

Is ISO9000 required for ABS Type Approval

No.  The quality system must be acceptable to the attending Surveyor and will be designated as "Acceptable Quality System (AQS)"  However, if the manufacturer asks for recognition of their certified quality system, the manufacturer will be designated as "Recognized Quality System (RQS)"

How does a product qualify to be called "ABS Type Approved Product"

The product must have both a valid and current design approval and a valid and current Manufacturing Assessment"

Who can use the ABS Approved Product Logo

When a product is eligible for a Confirmation of Type Approval, the Type Approved Product Logo may also be used with the understanding that it is copyrighted and its use must be controlled as follows:

1. Any advertisement or other use of the logo is to be presented to the Manager of ABS Programs for review prior to use
2. The logo may only be used on correspondence, advertising and promotional material and must not be used except in connection with those goods or services described in the scope and conditions of the Product Design Assessment Certificate.
3. The logo may be used only on those materials (i.e., Internet site, letterhead, marketing literature, advertising, invoice stock forms, packaging, etc.) relating to the particular facility and process/product lines included within the Confirmation of Type Approval. 
4. The logo may not, under any circumstances, be used directly on or closely associatedwith products in such a way as to imply that the products themselves are “Unit – certified” by ABS.
5. If used with other logos, ABS may ask that the manufacturer discontinue any use of other logos that are unacceptable to ABS and any form of statement that, in the opinion of ABS, might be misleading.
6. Upon the termination of certification, for whatever reason, the manufacturer must undertake to immediately discontinue all use of the logo and to destroy all stocks of material on which they appear. 
7. When advertising the product as ABS Type Approved, the manufacturer’s name, if different from the parent company, is to be used in conjunction with this logo. Any use should be specific to the process/product line covered and not represented as a blanket approval of the company. 
8. The logo may be scaled uniformly to any size necessary. The color of the logo shall be either black or blue (reflex blue or PMS 294 blue). 
9. Logos are available by e-mail from type_approval@eagle.org.

    

 

 

Does Product Type Approval replace Unit Certification

Product Type Approval is not a prerequesite for Unit Certification. The product either requires Unit Certification or it does not. Product Type Approval makes it a bit easier to do the shop inspections.

I am ISO9000 certified, why must I also be audited by ABS

Both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 concern the way an organization goes about its work, and not directly the result of this work. In other words, they both concern processes, and not products - at least, not directly. Nevertheless, the way in which the organization manages its processes is obviously going to affect its final product.  The management system standards in these families state requirements for what the organization must do to manage processes influencing quality (ISO 9000) or the processes influencing the impact of the organization's activities on the environment (ISO 14000).
Therefore, if we are going to accept ISO9001-2000 certification it must be in conjunction with some form of product specific audit that is based on our Rules.  In our type approval process we do not require ISO9001.  What we look for is an Acceptable Quality System (AQS) 1-1-A3/5.3.  Recognized Quality System (RQS) is simply an AQS system that has been certified to ISO9001 or equivalent.

Just what is EU type approval?

As a point of order, EU and all other class Type Approvals require the approval of a design + the approval of the manufacturer. It is more correct to refer to the EU Module B as "A type-examination certificate" not as a Type Approval certificate.

When a product has the wheel mark, and it is to be used on an EU flagged vessel, all class societies must accept it at face value.

When a Wheel Marked product is not to be used on an EU flagged vessel, the usual restriction ABS will have is for the Surveyor to be contacted prior to installation in order to obtain the Surveyor's acceptance for the specific application on ABS classed vessels. The Surveyor will also verify that the non EU Government has no specific requirements in addition to the ones used in EU approvals.

What is "Product Design Assessment"

 

What is "Manufacturing Assessment"

 

What is a limited approval

 

1. A product that has expired is pending renewal and requires technical revalidation prior to being used. The term of validity will be one year from the date of expiration of the PDA. 
2. A product that will be listed as in compliance with a previous Rule and remains valid only for vessels contracted on or before the effective date of the Rule. The effective date will be included in the service restrictions of the product. The term of validity will be five years subject to continued compliance with the applicable Rule.

Does ABS approve After Market Parts

The responsibility for compliance of an equipment design approved to ABS Rules lies with the OEM. Continued suitability for use is the responsibility of the owner. The owner is responsible for the choice of replacement parts and the suitability for use and continued warranty of the equipment with the OEM. Modifications to the equipment, such as the use of spare parts not licensed by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), may jeopardize the vessels classification and compliance with International Regulations.

What are the relations between a design review letter, a PDA and Unit Certification

The Type Approval Program distinguishes between a review of the design and prototype, and a guarantee of each individual product. The PDA certificate is essentially a design review letter that is intended to certify that the design of a product, and the relevant prototype test reports if applicable, were reviewed and found in compliance with the applicable specifications.

This has nothing to do with the actual units manufactured in accordance with that design, nor with the actual facility manufacturing them.

In particular, we have no objections for the manufacturing a product, covered by a valid PDA Certificate, by a facility not covered by a MA Certificate (be it of the same Company holding the PDA Certificate, or of another one), provided that product is manufactured in accordance with the design approved in connection with the valid PDA, and is subject to Unit Certification as required.

However, issuance of a PDA/DUP is mandatory if an OEM wishes to license a secondary OEM to obtain a full Type Approval through a Manufacturing Assessment of their facilities.

What is the difference between an Approved Product and Type Approved Product

When ABSRules ask for an "Approved Product"  it means a product that requires either a technical evaluation or a survey.  Normally the technical evaluation is reported in a design review letter (DRL) and is limited to a specific application. 

If a client wants a generic approval, then a Product Design Assessment (PDA) is issued.   

When ABS Rules ask for "Unit Certification"; then a Surveyor would use either the DRL or the PDA and conduct a manufacturing survey at the plant, and in turn issue a report that is normally an AB-113.

At this time ABS Rules do not require "Product Type Approval" for any products. You will find that some societies do require Product Type Approval, and it is becoming a more frequently seen requirement in SOLAS and the MED.  

In order to be called a Type Approved Product, the product must have both a valid and current design approval and a valid and current Manufacturing Assessment.

How do I contact my local ABS Office

Here is the link to the ABS on line Office Directory

http://absapps.eagle.org/absoffices/searchemp.do

What is an Audit

 

What is an Auditor

 

What is an Inspector

 

What is Classification

  •         Classification is a representation to the structural and mechanical fitness for a particular use or service in accordance with Rules and standards.

•         The Classification process includes performance of a schedule of surveys during the service life of a vessel

What is Unit Certification

 

What does WCN mean on the web site

To be sure we all have the correct information in Type Approval we are obliged to follow a strict identity of the designer, or OEM and secondary OEMs.

The Type Approval data base is set up based on a Worldwide Client Number ( WCN)  linked to our accounting systems.  That WCN must be the physical location of the OEM who is either the designer or the OEM

When a product design assessment is completed it is assigned to the WCN of the entity that will have control of the product and its specifications.

If the entity that owns the PDA is also the manufacturer of the PDA, then the Manufacturing Assessment Certificate is also assigned to that WCN.

If the entity that owns the PDA decides to subcontract the PDA, then the secondary OEM must also be assigned a WCN.

When audits are done, they must be associated to the WCN of the actual facility that the Surveyor physically attends.

What is certification

  Is an attestation or a statement of fact as to the condition of a piece of equipment or a vessel at a specific time in accordance with ABS Rules or;

1. A representation that a survey was carried out in compliance with one or more of the Rules, guides, standards or other criteria of ABS or;
2. In compliance with other specific standards or;
3. A representation that a piece of equipment such as a mooring chain complies with one or more of the Rules, guides, standards or other specific standards

What is Inspection

 

What is a Survey

 

What is a Surveyor