Approval Series (or Qclass):
Safety equipment, materials, or installations requiring Coast Guard approval are issued approval
numbers in
the form 000.000 / 0000000 / 0. The first six digits and the decimal point are the
"Approval Series (Qclass)."
Many Approval Series (Qclass) numbers (but not all) correspond to
subparts in 46 CFR Subchapter Q, hence their
name Qclass (for example, "Kapok Life Preserver" are
assigned a Qclass/Approval Series of "160.002").
To see a list of all Approval Series', Click Here
.
Approval Number:
Approval number is the number that is assigned to a specific make and model of approved
equipment.
For the Approval Series Name (or Qclass description) of "Kapok Life Preserver",
American Pad and Textile
Company was assigned the first approval under this Approval Series
(or Qclass) for a Model 2, adult life
preserver identified as 160.002/1/0. The second field, the "1",
is the number assigned for the make and model.
The third field is the revision number for the design.
It is the combination of these three numbers "160.002/1/0"
that is known as the "Approval Number".
The next make and model submitted for approval in this Approval Series is
assigned the next sequential
number in the center field and so forth. If the make and model is significantly revised,
the next sequential
revision number is assigned in the third field. (The revision number is not needed/used to search.).
If
more than one manufacturer makes the same equipment, the additional manufacturers are given a
'Private Label'
identifier. This is a letter after the second slash, but before the revision number
(000.000/A0000000/0). You may
search by using the entire Approval Number, or using just
the Approval Series.
Approval Series Name:
For the above example of Approval Series (Qclass) 160.002, "Kapok Life Preserver" is known as the
Approval Series Name (or Qclass description).
Manufacturer Name:
The name of the manufacturer of approved equipment.
EC/US MRA Approval:
These are products that have been given European Community (EC) approval or Wheelmark
approval by the
US Coast Guard based on a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) signed in
February 2004. Specific products
as set forth in the MRA Annex II may go through the US Coast
Guard approval process and then be assigned
an EC approval number and be allowed to display the
Wheelmark without additional EC oversight. Additional
information on this MRA may be viewed at
the G-MSE-4 website: http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/mse4/mse4home.htm.
General Keyword Search:
This is a general search of all text fields for a specified keyword.
Wildcard Characters:
Wildcard characters are automatically added to all text based searches.
However, if you wish to
further refine your search you may use two wildcard characters. The underscore '_'
character replaces
a single character. Example: J_pan searches for Japan, Jbpan, Jcpan and so on. The
percent '%'
character can be used to replace any combination of characters. Example: Ja% would return
both Japan and Jacksonville.
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