PART 1205—SAFETY STANDARD FOR WALK-BEHIND POWER LAWN MOWERS Authority: Secs. 2, 3, 7, 9, 14, 19, Pub. L. 92-573, 86 Stat. 1207, 1208, 1212-1217, 1220, 1224; 15 U.S.C. 2051, 2052, 2056, 2058, 2063, 2068; sec. 1212, Pub. L. 97-35, 95 Stat. 357. Source: 44 FR 10024, Feb. 15, 1979, unless otherwise noted. Subpart A—The Standard § 1205.1 Scope of the standard. (a) General. Findings. (b) Scope. consumer product (2) It is unlawful to manufacture for sale, offer for sale, distribute in commerce, or import into the United States any product subject to this standard that is not in conformity with the standard. The Commission is not applying the standard to rental transactions or to the ultimate sale of used rental mowers by rental firms. (c) Exclusions General. (i) A cutting width of 30 in (762 mm) or greater, (ii) A weight of 200 lb (90.7 kg) or more, and (iii) For engine-powered mowers, an engine of 8 horsepower (6 kw) or more. (2) Reel-type mowers. § 1205.2 Effective date. This standard applies to all rotary walk behind power lawn mowers manufactured after June 30, 1982, except § 1205.6 Warning labels, [44 FR 10024, Feb. 15, 1979, as amended 45 FR 86417, Dec. 31, 1980] § 1205.3 Definitions. (a) As used in this part 1205: (1) Blade (2) Blade tip circle (3) Crack (4) Cutting width (5) Deform (6) Engine (7) Manual starting (8) Maximum operating speed (9) Motor (10) Normal starting means (11) Operating control zone (12) Power source (13) Reel-type mower (14) Rotary mower (15) Separate (16) Shield (17) Stress (18) Top of the mower's handles (19) Walk-behind power lawn mower (b) Where applicable, the definitions in section 3 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2052) apply to this part 1205. [44 FR 10024, Feb. 15, 1979, as amended at 46 FR 54934, Nov. 5, 1981] § 1205.4 Walk-behind rotary power mower protective shields. (a) General requirements. (1) When the foot probe of Fig. 2 is inserted under any point within the areas to be probed during the foot probe test of paragraph (b)(1) of this section, the shields shall prevent the foot probe from entering the path of the blade or causing any part of the mower to enter the path of the blade. (2) Any shield located totally or partly within the areas to be probed, as defined in paragraph (b)(1)(ii) of this section, shall not permanently separate, crack, or deform when the shield is subjected to a 50 lb (222 N) static tensile force, uniformly distributed over not less than half the length of the shield. The force shall be applied for at least 10 seconds in the direction which produces the maximum stress on the shield. While being tested, a shield shall be attached to the mower in the manner in which it is intended to be used. (This requirement does not apply to the housing.) (3) During the obstruction test of paragraph (b)(2) of this section, shields shall not: (i) Stop the mower as a result of contact with the raised obstacle, (ii) Enter the path of the blade, or (iii) Cause more than one wheel at a time to be lifted from the fixture surface. (b) Shield tests—general Foot probe test. (A) The test shall be performed on a smooth level surface. (B) Pneumatic tires, when present, shall be inflated to the cold pressures recommended by the mower manufacturer. (C) The mower housing shall be adjusted to its highest setting relative to the ground. (D) The blade shall be adjusted to its lowest position relative to the blade housing. (E) The mower shall be secured so that the mower may not move horizontally but is free to move vertically. (ii) Areas to be probed. 1 ( 2 1 (B) Where a 360 degree foot protective shield is required by § 1205.5(a)(1)(iv)(B) or § 1205.5(c), the entire periphery of the mower shall be probed (including any discharge chute comprising part of the periphery). (iii) Procedure. (2) Obstruction test. (A) Pneumatic tires, when present, shall be inflated to the cold pressure recommended by the mower manufacturer. (B) The mower housing shall be at its highest setting relative to the ground. (ii) The test shall be performed on the fixture of Fig. 6, which consists of a level surface having (A) a 0.99 in (25 mm) deep depression with a 5.90 in (150 mm) radius of curvature and (B) a raised obstacle 0.60 in (15 mm) square, each extending the full width of the fixture. The depression shall be lined with a material having a surface equivalent to a 16- to 36-grit abrasive. The depression and the obstacle shall be located a sufficient distance apart so that the mower contacts only one at a time. (iii) The test fixture may be relieved, only to the extent necessary, to prevent interference with any blade retaining device. (iv) The mower shall be pushed forward and pulled rearward perpendicular to and across the depression and the raised obstacle on the fixture. The mower shall be pulled and pushed, without lifting, with a horizontal force sufficient to transit the obstruction fixture at a speed not to exceed 2.2 ft/sec (0.7 m/sec). (c) Movable shields General. (i) Return automatically to a position that meets the requirements of subpart A of this part 1205 when the attached equipment is not present, or (ii) Prevent operation of the blade(s) unless the attached equipment is present or the movable shield is returned to a position that meets the requirements of subpart A of this part 1205. (2) Tests. (ii) Prevention of operation of the blade(s) shall be determined, first by manually deflecting the shield to its extreme open position, then, following the appropriate manufacturer's instructions, completing the procedures necessary to operate the blade. Observe, using any safe method, that the blade(s) has been prevented from operating. [44 FR 10024, Feb. 15, 1979, as amended at 45 FR 86417, 86418, Dec. 31, 1980; 46 FR 54934, Nov. 5, 1981; 48 FR 6328, Feb. 11, 1983] § 1205.5 Walk-behind rotary power mower controls. (a) Blade control systems Requirements for blade control. (i) Prevent the blade from operating unless the operator actuates the control. (ii) Require continuous contact with the control in order for the blade to continue to be driven. (iii) Cause the blade motion in the normal direction of travel to come to a complete stop within 3.0 seconds after release of the control. (iv) For a mower with an engine and with only manual starting controls, this blade control shall stop the blade without stopping the engine, unless: (A) The engine starting controls for the lawn mower are located within 24 inches from the top of the mower's handles, or (B) The mower has a protective foot shield which extends 360 degrees around the mower housing (see § 1205.4 (b)(1)(ii)(B)). 1 1 (2) All walk-behind rotary power mowers shall have, in addition to any blade control required by paragraph (a)(1) of this section, another means which must be manually actuated before a stopped blade can be restarted. This additional means may be either a control which is separate from the control required by paragraph (a)(1) of this section, or may be incorporated into the control required by paragraph (a)(1) of this section as a double-action device requiring two distinct actions to restart the blade. (b) Blade stopping test General. (2) Conditions. (ii) The blade must be at maximum operating speed when the blade control is released. (c) Starting controls location. [44 FR 10024, Feb. 15, 1979, as amended at 46 FR 54934, Nov. 5, 1978] § 1205.6 Warning label for reel-type and rotary power mowers. (a) General. (b) Rotary mowers. (c) Reel-type mowers. [44 FR 10024, Feb. 15, 1979, as amended at 45 FR 86417, Dec. 31, 1980] § 1205.7 Prohibited stockpiling. (a) Stockpiling. Stockpiling (b) Prohibited acts. (c) Base period. § 1205.8 Findings. (a) General. (b) The degree and nature of the risk of injury part 1205 is designed to eliminate or reduce. (2) Part 1205 is expected to eliminate or reduce the severity of about 60,000 blade contact injuries per year, or 77% of all such injuries. The Commission estimates that if all mowers had been in compliance with the standard in 1977, about 6,800 finger amputations, 1,500 toe amputations, 11,000 fractures, 1,800 avulsions, 38,400 lacerations, and several hundred contusions would not have occurred. Of the lacerations and avulsions, 28,300 were finger injuries and 9,400 were toe injuries. (c) Consumer products subject to the rule. (d) Need of the public for the products subject to the rule. (e) Probable effect of the rule upon the utility of the product. (2) During the development of the rule, questions were raised about whether changes in the shields necessitated by the foot probe requirements would adversely affect utility by causing mowers to be hard to push in grass or to be unable to mow close to walls. At the time of issuance of this rule, mowers are available that will pass a 360° foot probe and others are available that will pass rear and side foot probing without any significant loss of utility caused by shielding. Therefore, the Commission concludes that this requirement will not adversely affect the utility of mowers. Mowers with swing-over handles, however, may be more difficult to design in this regard, since 120° at each end of the mower are subject to the foot probe requirement. However, since mowers meeting this requirement have already been built without apparent loss of utility, the Commission concludes that shielding can be designed so that there should be no loss of utility even for mowers with swing-over handles. (3) As required by section 9(b) of the CPSA, the Commission, in considering the issues involved in issuing a power lawn mower safety standard, has considered and taken into account the special needs of elderly and handicapped persons to determine the extent to which such persons may be adversely affected by the rule. The Commission has determined that there will be no significant adverse effect on such persons as a result of this part 1205. In the first place, the rule can affect only those persons who are physically capable of using a power lawn mower. None of the rule's provisions will make it more difficult to operate a mower that complies with the standard. On the contrary, complying mowers should be easier to use because the need for manually restarting the mower will be less and because, if the mower uses a brake-clutch to comply with the blade control requirement, use of the brake-clutch can reduce the tendency of the engine to stall in heavy grass. Although a person's ability to hold a device such as a blade control for a long period of time will decline with age, the force required to hold the blade control can be made low enough that it will not be a problem during the length of time that it takes for consumers to mow a lawn. (4) After considering the possible adverse effects on mowers that could be caused by the standard and balancing them against the increase in utility that is expected, the Commission concludes that, for a typical consumer, the increases in utility should more than offset any decreases. (f) Probable effect of the rule upon the cost of the product. (g) Probable effect of the rule upon the availability of the product. (2) Because some manufacturers may not revise their entire product line before the effective date of the standard, individual mower manufacturers may initially have less varied lines than at present, but there should be no decrease in the overall types and features of mowers available to consumers. (h) Alternative methods. (2) Similarly, the Commission has found no alternative means of achieving the objective of the standard that it believes would have fewer adverse effects on competition or that would cause less disruption or dislocation of manufacturing and other commercial practices, consistent with the public health and safety. (i) Unreasonable risk of injury. Economic Impact of Blade Contact Requirements for Power Mowers, (2) The foot probe and related requirements are expected to reduce the number of blade contact injuries to the foot by 13,000 each year. It is not possible to apportion this injury reduction among the respective requirements. The cost of these requirements is estimated to be about $4.00 per mower, mostly for redesign of the shields. The shield strength requirement is similar to a requirement in the existing voluntary standard that is almost universally complied with, and should comprise only a small portion of the $4.00 retail cost increase compared to pre-standard mowers that is attributable to this related group of requirements. Also, shields complying with the movable shield requirement are featured in some currently produced mowers. (3) The foot probe and related requirements should result in a cost increase of about $22,000,000 and undiscounted injury savings of about $46,000,000, exclusive of any allowance for pain and suffering. (4) The starting location control requirement would apply only to mowers with a power restart capability using engine kill to stop the blade. The cost for relocating the power restart switch, if necessary, should be very minor, and more than offset by the elimination of a clutch, as discussed below. (5) The requirement that the blade stop within 3 seconds of the release of the blade control is supported by (i) the requirement that those mowers that stop the blade by stopping the engine must have a power restart (to remove the motivation to disable the blade control because of the inconven- ience of manually starting the mower each time the control is released) and by (ii) the requirement for an additional control that must be actuated before the blade can resume operation (to prevent accidental starting of the blade). Together, these requirements are expected to reduce the number of blade contact injuries by 46,500 per year for an undiscounted savings in injury costs of about $165,000,000 per year, exclusive of pain and suffering. (6) Virtually all mowers will be subjected to a cost increase of about $3 for the blade control actuating means and $1 for the second control required to restart the blade. (The $1 cost could be eliminated for power restart-engine kill mowers that do not start when the blade control is actuated.) (7) Also, most mowers would require a brake for the blade in order to achieve a 3 second stop time. This would add another $6.50-$8.50, depending on the type of mower. Mowers with power restart capability could stop the blade by killing the engine and thus would not need to provide a clutch to disconnect the engine from the blade. Mowers using manual restart would have to provide a clutch or other blade disengagement devices, which would probably be combined with the brake in a unitary brake-clutch mechanism. (8) The following are the Commission's estimates of the probable retail price increases associated with certain types of currently produced mowers that will be caused by the blade control requirements. Type of mower Blade control retail price increases Electric mowers (house current or battery powered) $15.00 Present Electric start gasoline mowers 13.00-19.50 Present Manual start gasoline mowers brake clutch approach 32.50 Power restart approach 29.00-39.50 (9) The weighted average retail price increase of the blade stop requirements is expected to be about $31 per mower for a total retail cost increase of $167,000,000. (10) The foot probe and blade stop requirements of the standard will obviously not completely protect the users of mowers under all circumstances. It is still essential for consumers to be aware of the hazard of blade contact and take the proper precautions to protect themselves. It is especially important that users not become complacent with the knowledge that the mower incorporates blade contact safety requirements. Accordingly, the Commission has determined that it is desirable that mowers complying with the standard bear a label warning of the danger of blade contact. Such a requirement would result in practically no effect on the retail price of mowers since labels are very inexpensive and practically all currently produced mowers bear some type of warning label. In view of the hazard that will be associated with power mowers even after the effective date of the standard, and the low cost of the label, the Commission concludes there is an unreasonable risk of injury that can be addressed by the label requirements in this part 1205. (j) Conclusion. [44 FR 10024, Feb. 15, 1979, as amended at 45 FR 86417, Dec. 31, 1980] Subpart B—Certification Source: 44 FR 70386, Dec. 6, 1979, unless otherwise noted. § 1205.30 Purpose, scope, and application. (a) Purpose. (b) Scope and application. (2) As authorized by section 14(a)(2) of the act, the Commission exempts manufacturers who manufacture or import only component parts, and private labelers, from the requirement to issue certificates. (Private labelers who are also importers must still certify.) § 1205.31 Effective date. Any walk-behind rotary power mower manufactured after December 31, 1981, must meet the standard and must be certified as complying with the standard in accordance with this rule. § 1205.32 Definitions. In addition to the definitions set forth in section 3 of the act (15 U.S.C. 2052) and in § 1205.3 of the standard, the following definitions shall apply to this subpart B of part 1205: (a) Manufacturer (b) Manufactured (c) Private labeler (d) Production lot (e) Reasonable testing program § 1205.33 Certification testing. (a) General. (b) Reasonable testing program. (2) To conduct a reasonable testing program, the mowers shall be divided into production lots. Sample mowers from each production lot shall be tested in accordance with the reasonable testing program so that there is a reasonable assurance that if the mowers selected for testing meet the standard, all mowers in the lot will meet the standard. Where there is a change in parts, suppliers of parts, or production methods that could affect the ability of the mower to comply with the requirements of the standard, the manufacturer should establish a new production lot for testing. (3) The Commission will test for compliance with the standard by using the test procedures contained in the standard. However, a manufacturer's reasonable testing program may include either tests prescribed in the standard or any other reasonable test procedures. (For example, in the shield strength test (§ 1205.4), the manufacturer might choose to use a force higher than the 50 lb force specified in the standard.) (4) If the reasonable testing program shows that a mower does not comply with one or more requirements of the standard, no mower in the production lot can be certified as complying until the noncomplying mowers in the lot have been identified and destroyed or altered by repair, redesign, or use of a different material or components to the extent necessary to make them conform to the standard. The sale or offering for sale of mowers that do not comply with the standard is a prohibited act and a violation of section 19(a)(1) of the CPSA, regardless of whether the mower has been validly certified. § 1205.34 Recordkeeping requirements. (a) General. (b) Content of records. (c) Format for records. § 1205.35 Product certification and labeling by manufacturers. (a) Form of permanent label of certification. (b) Contents of certification label. (1) The statement “Meets CPSC blade safety requirements.” (2) An identification of the production lot. (3) The name of the person or firm issuing the certificate. (4) The location where the product was principally assembled. (5) The month and year the product was manufactured. (c) Coding. (d) Placement of label. [44 FR 70386, Dec. 6, 1979, as amended at 49 FR 28241, July 11, 1984] § 1205.36 Product certification and labeling by importers. (a) General. (b) Responsibility of importer.