A final meeting of ISO TC 104 Working group for standard amendments took place on 8 – 9 February 2016 in Copenhagen at DANISH STANDARDS Headquarters (national standardization organization in Denmark), says press center of RS. This group was established to solve the problem of container loss during transportation by sea – the matter being on the agenda of recent sessions of the IMO Subcommittee on containers and goods.
Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) was actively participating in the work of the above group being recently engaged in development of draft amendments to ISO 3874 “Series 1 Freight containers – Handling and securing” and ISO 1161 “Series 1 Freight containers. Corner fittings”.
Initially, ISO 3874 subjected to amendment as regards the automatic twistlocks and automatic container locks, loads and testing procedures. The draft document will be submitted to national standardization committees for voting.
Prepared version of ISO 1161 differs radically from the edition of 1984 being now in force. It was supplemented by the earlier missing requirements on the applicable materials, extent of testing, test loads, marking. Publication of the standard, the majority of national committees had been voted for, is scheduled for the latter half of the year 2016.
As other classification societies - IACS members, RS carries out technical supervision of containers, their components and securing means. In the course of preparing the draft amendments, RS was represented by the Head of RS Container Department Alexander Fetisov as ISO and GOST R container expert, as well as IACS observer. Stressing the high importance of the group activity results, he noted: “Both standards are key normative documents to ensure safety of transport equipment (containers) itself and its carriage and storage conditions. The drafts have been worked out with due regard to the changes took place in construction of containers and technology of carriage and to the full extent mirror development of the industry.”