The National Windshield Repair Association (NWRA) has been involved in standards-development for some time, starting with the Repair of Laminated Auto Glass Standard™ (ROLAGS), published nearly ten years ago. Now, the NWRA’s Break Identification Standard (BIS) Committee has released the latest draft of the proposed standard for public comment. The proposed standard, to be known as ANSI/NWRA/BIS 001-2017, will create an identification system detailing where glass damage has been repaired and covers all types of glass in the car, exclusive of sunroofs.
The Details
The Break Identification System consists of ten identifiers in a row:
- The first through fourth identifier is the four-digit DOT numeral assigned to the glass manufacturer;
- The fifth position is a letter that identifies the type of glass;
- The sixth position is a letter that identifies the location of the break according to a vertical grid;
- The seventh position is a numeral that identifies the location of the break according to a horizontal grid;
- The eighth position is a letter that identifies the type of break; and
- The ninth and tenth positions are used to record the length of the damage.
The standard is then broken into four parts, describing how to identify glass on a windshield, a laminated door glass, a laminated back glass, and sidelites and/or quarter-lites or vents. Each section includes a diagram to describe the location of the damage.
Additionally, a chart with the types of breaks is included with a code for identifying each type: bullseye; combo; edge crack; floater crack; half-moon; pit-fill; radiation crack; star; and service call (no work).
The BIS Committee first met in 2015, and this is the second time the standard has been put forth for public review. Those who wish to review the full latest draft of the BIS may do so by visiting www.nwrassn.org.
Call for Action
Please take a moment to review the details of the standard and provide your thoughts and comments to us. We want the standard to be used widely throughout the industry and want to ensure it is useful to all those in the windshield repair industry.
Comments on the Standard are due in by June 1, 2017, and should be sent to Janeen Mulligan at jmulligan@nwrassn.org.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Jeff Reddell is the president of the National Windshield Repair Association (NWRA) as well as the owner of PACE Glass in Texarkana, Texas. jeff@paceglass.us
