Standards Development

Scope

This British Standard gives recommendations for replacement of automotive glazing. It applies to heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), light vehicles, coaches and passenger cars.

To provide automotive glazing, auto collision repair, and other organisation involved in the supply and replacement of automotive glazing products clearly defined requirements to be able to fulfil the requirements of glazing replacement safely and effectively and will establish minimum performance requirements to enable safe and robust replacement of glass and associated systems such as ADAS.

This will be centred around.

• Verifying minimum knowledge requirements

• Use of tools

• The 4 Ms philosophy to be used.

Purpose

Windscreens are a part of vehicle safety systems. This is from a structural integrity perspective (passive safety), and more recently with the advent of collision avoid technology such as radar/ADAS from a systems perspective (active safety). Therefore, there is a need that when a screen needs to be replaced it is done to a standard that adopts the 4 M’s principles, Man, Method, Machine and Material, which has been the approach taken with the review of related standards such as BSAU:242 2020 and BS10125.

The purpose of this BS is to align automotive glass replacement with peer sectors, namely automotive Accident Repair Centre (BS 10125) and automotive glass repair (BS AU 242b) which have British Standards in place to determine the correct methods and actions to be followed to ensure a resultant safe job is completed.

Currently no defined standards exist to control removal and refit of windscreens, all VM’s provide instructions, however there is no standard directing the automotive glazing industry to use them. Technology is advancing where in many new vehicles includes integrated systems within the windscreen of the vehicle that links to safety systems. Anyone can set themselves up as an automotive glazier with no qualifications, assessments, or quality management infrastructure and replace the direct glazed glass, glass roofs and side glass laminated, consideration also needs to be given to polycarbonate units which will follow in cars, vans and trucks. With direct glazed glass being an integral part of the structure of a modern motor vehicle it is vitally important that any replacement of a vehicle glass is carried out in such a way that the structural integrity is retained.

Other critical considerations include use of safety related technology by the vehicle manufacturers, especially the mounting of forward facing and rear mounted cameras, radar and head-up displays onto or incorporated into the process of any glazing is as equally important that these technologies are refitted correctly and the operation of them determined to be within the vehicle manufacturers specifications post replacement and the vehicle is returned to the vehicles manufacturers original specifications pre replacement.

To improve and unify the standards of the glass replacement related tasks process.The standard will ensure an industry specific best practice approach around the windscreen replacement market and provide correct, consistent, and safer installations. If a standardised approach is adopted to ensure all vehicle related tasks adopt vehicle manufacturer or researched approved methods, it would provide a definite process when any glass related task is completed.