Plastic Fuel Tank Standards & Certification

[Joe T]

Don't know whether anyone has looked at this before, been looking at pages 39,40 in the IVA Manual re fuel tanks and it states that plastic ones are certificated to a certain standard.

Some of the companies I have been speaking to seem a vague on this, where can I find out about the standards, do they apply to the product or the company manufacturing the product. What sort of certifacte needs to be issued.

To be clear I am not interested in individual companies offering to construct to the standard, its the standards itself I am interested in.

Thanks

Joe T

[stig mills]

My understanding is that there is a requirement for evidence to be provided that for BIVA a plastic tank is from a mass produced vehicle in an unmodified state. A picture of it in its previous install is evidence. After market plastic tanks could be E marked but it doesn't say thats acceptable strangly. No mention of a certificate being required, alloy tanks are not covered, regards Stuart

[Joe T]

Maybe I am reading it wrong:

Method of Inspection

Fuel tanks for Gaseous Fuels and Plastic Fuel Tanks
Check that an approval/test report is presented with the vehicle and that the tank markings are correct.



Required Standard

Fuel Tanks for Gaseous Fuels
1. The vehicle must be accompanied by satifactory documentary evidence with the required standard for fuel tanks for gaseous fuels.

Plastic Tanks
2. The vehicle must be accompanied by satifactory documentary evidence with the required standard for Plastic fuel Tanks.


I appreciate I may be reading too much into this, I am also using the draft copy listed in this forum for reference. But it sounded like paperwork may be required for fabricated Plastic tanks, if so what paperwork.

Cheers

Joe

[stig mills]

Hi Joe, my understanding is that "gaseous tanks" refers to LPG tanks where proof of suitability would be required, prosumably a pressure test cert from a vessel manufacturer. The wording does seem to rule out the use of plastic tanks unless they have been designed for mass produced vehicles.

[Snake the Sniper]

I had read it mean that plastics tanks are still ok, but will require some sort of cert to say the plastic is fuel proof. There was a case of the guy who makes/made the plastic MK Indy tanks being sent a wrong batch of plastic welding rods which, whilst marked fuel proof, where not. As such all the tanks leaked!

[stig mills]

Confusion is arrising as the wording re fuel tanks in the 3rd draft differs from drafts floating around the net.

[Snake the Sniper]

stig mills said:

Confusion is arrising as the wording re fuel tanks in the 3rd draft differs from drafts floating around the net.

Yup, standard issue VOSA/DVLA for you. Make it all as vague as possible, so that no-one really knows what to do until the testers fail something.

[GreenV8S]

Can't remember where I saw it, but just today I was reading about some boaters who were up in arms because their government were forcing fuel suppliers to include a certain percentage of ethanol in petrol. The problem is that boats tend to use plastic / fiberglass tanks and ethanol slowly destroys these. It wasn't in the UK and I don't know how likely it is that we'll get similar laws here (we might already have for all I know) but that'd make me think twice about going for a plastic tank. (Crash safety would be another thing that made me think twice.)

[Avocet]

I think they'll be looking for an approval to EC Directive 70/221. It's quite involved to be honest, and I doubt it would be worth any kit car manufacturer's while doing the tests. I can't remember exactly what's involved, but there are a variety of tests on the material and on the tank itself (fuel permeability, cold impact resistance, heat resistance, fire retardancy) etc. It's quite a complicated and expensive process.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?...

[Joe T]

Avocet said:

I think they'll be looking for an approval to EC Directive 70/221. It's quite involved to be honest, and I doubt it would be worth any kit car manufacturer's while doing the tests. I can't remember exactly what's involved, but there are a variety of tests on the material and on the tank itself (fuel permeability, cold impact resistance, heat resistance, fire retardancy) etc. It's quite a complicated and expensive process.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?...

Thats very interesting, most plastic maunfacturers have detailed spec sheets covering exactly those topics.
Its the tests on the finished tank that I can see causing problems.

Guess it will also be a matter of waiting for the draft to become legislation also.

Thanks

Joe

[stig mills]

Just sent the 3rd draft of BIVA to my web man so you can see it on www.mevltd.co.uk under downloads. Regards Stuart

Edited by stig mills on Thursday 29th January 17:00

[Joe T]

stig mills said:

Just sent the 3rd draft of BIVA to my web man so you can see it on www.mevltd.co.uk under dowmloads probably Friday.

Thanks I can now see where the confusion might be, now I need to establish what would constitute satisfactory evidence to show its been designed for road use.
Some of the plastics companies can do pressure testing, crush testing etc

Very interesting

Thanks

Joe

[Avocet]

Actually, I've just had a quick look at the 3rd draft testers' manual on the MEV site and it seems to suggest that the tester ought to be happy if the tank looks likea mass-produced one that hasn't been modified, so things might not be as bad as it seems. The two really nasty tests are the cold impact test at -40 degrees C (where the tank is filled with a glycol and water mix, cooled to -40 and then a pendulum with a pyramid-shaped impactor is swung into it to try and punch it's way through the tank in the worst possible location(s)) and the test where it has to be filled with fuel and stood over a tray of burning fuel for "x" minutes without going up.

[Joe T]

Does anyone know of any manufacturers using their own plastic welded tanks?

Cheers

Joe