AnswerID: 100739 Submitted: Tuesday, Mar 01, 2005 at 22:17
Truckster (Vic)
replied:
Current issues
Look out for high lift jacks
The Consumer Product Safety Standard for vehicle jacks provides mandatory requirements for high lift jacks. They include marking/labelling, design, construction and performance requirements. The mandatory standard is based on Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 2693:2003 Vehicle Jacks.
The mandatory standard for vehicle jacks was declared in Consumer Protection Notice No. 15 of 2003, published in Commonwealth of
Australia Gazette No. GN 50 of 17 December 2003.
Testing
The test methods to ensure vehicle jacks comply with the mandatory standard are set out in AS/NZS 2693:2003. High lift jacks in particular need to adequately satisfy performance tests for:
Durability and overtravel test
Stop test during the lowering of the jack
Loss of height test
Overload test
Suppliers
The ACCC does not provide an approval function for goods subject to mandatory product safety or information standards. Suppliers need to ensure that the goods they import and supply in
Australia comply with the relevant mandatory Australian standard. This can be done by having the product tested by a competent Australian testing laboratory or equivalent overseas testing agency.
The National Association of Testing Authorities
Australia (NATA) provides a list of accredited laboratories and details of their accreditation on the website www.nata.asn.au.
To aid compliance with the mandatory standard, suppliers should read the consumer protection notice in conjunction with AS/NZS 2693:2003 Vehicle Jacks. Copies of this standard can be obtained by calling Standards
Australia direct on 1300 654 646 or placing an order via the Standards
Australia website www.standards.com.au
A copy of Consumer Protection Notice No. 15 of 2003 is available on the ACCC website under Product safety/mandatory consumer product safety and information standards.
Consumers can check that their high lift jacks have the following labelling and marking requirements:
The name and address in
Australia or New Zealand of the manufacturer, importer or other suppliers of the jack.
The nominated capacity in kilograms stated as 'Working Load Limit…kg'.
A warning notice as follows, or words to the same effect, in letters not less than 5mm: ‘WARNING: NOT FOR VEHICLE MAINTENANCE OR WHEEL REMOVAL. DO NOT GET UNDER A RAISED VEHICLE’
and ‘THIS JACK MUST HAVE A MINIMUM LOAD OF X KG (manufacturers to nominate a load) ON IT TO LOWER STEP-BY-STEP, OTHERWISE THE LIFTING MECHANISM WILL SLIDE DOWN TO THE BASE PLATE DROPPING YOUR LOAD’.
The manufacturing batch identification.
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