Working Party on Noise | Session 68 | 12-14 Sep 2018
Geneva

The deadline for the submission of official working documents is 18 June 2018.

This session will address a major change in GRB responsibilities pursuant to the WP.29 decision to establish a Working Party on Automated Vehicles (GRVA) by a “conversion” of GRRF. As a result, WP.29 anticipates transforming GRB into GRBP (Groupe de Rapporteurs pour le Bruit et les Pneumatiques") with responsibility for tyre regulations. Please see agenda item 14 for further information.

Agenda Item 19.
Tyres

28. The expert from ETRTO proposed amendments to UN Regulations Nos. 30 and 64 which introduce provisions related to extended mobility tyres (EMT) (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRVA/2018/6, ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRVA/2018/7 and GRB-68-14). He pointed out that EMT were already available on the market and needed to be regulated. The experts from Germany, Italy and Japan supported the proposals. The experts from France, Netherlands and Switzerland posed questions. The expert from UK requested data on the availability of EMT on the market. GRB was of the view that Contracting Parties needed more time to study the proposals and decided to defer this item to the next session. Meanwhile, GRB experts were invited to study the proposals and send their remarks to ETRTO.

29. The expert from ETRTO proposed to clarify the scope of UN Regulation No. 106 (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRVA/2018/8). GRB adopted the proposals and requested the secretariat to submit them to WP.29 and AC.1 for consideration and vote at their March 2019 sessions as a draft Supplement 17 to the original series of amendments to UN Regulation No. 106, subject to the following modifications:

Paragraph 1.2. (new), amend to read:

“1.2. This UN Regulation does not apply to the following tyres:”

30. The expert from ETRTO introduced draft amendments to UN Regulation No. 117 (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRVA/2018/5 and GRB-68-12). The proposal received comments from the experts of Germany, Spain, United States of America and BIPAVER. The Chair invited other experts to transmit their remarks to ETRTO with a view to submitting a revised consolidated proposal to the next session.

31. The expert of ETRTO presented an overview of activities of the tyre industry and ISO with the aim to improve wet grip test method for passenger car tyres (C1) (GRB-68-15). GRB took note of this information.

32. The expert of the Russian Federation, in his capacity of Chair of IWG on Tyres dealing with the development of Amendment 2 to UN GTR No. 16 (IWG Tyre GTR), presented their progress report (GRB-68-16) as well as a proposal for an addendum to the authorization (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/AC.3/48) to develop Amendment No. 2 to UN GTR No. 16 (GRB-68-07). GRB took note of the status report and agreed that the proposed addendum to ECE/TRANS/WP.29/AC.3/48 should be submitted to the Executive Committee of the 1998 Agreement (AC.3).

33. In connection with the activities of IWG Tyre GTR, the expert from United States of America presented the outcome of the North American all-season tyre pre-meeting (GRB-68-17). The expert of ETRTO briefly introduced proposals for amendments to UN GTR No. 16 which would be presented in detail at the next session of GRB (GRB-68-18). The expert of ETRTO reported on developing a harmonized high speed test based on the two such tests listed in UN GTR No. 16, namely the one based on UN Regulation No. 30 and the other one based on the American Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 139 (GRB-68-24).

34. On behalf of IWG Tyre GTR, the expert from the Russian Federation introduced a concept “Global Tyre” and a relevant marking to open a dialogue among the Contracting Parties to the 1998 Agreement to assess the feasibility of the proposed approach (GRRF-86-22).

35. The expert from Germany presented a status report of the group of interested experts from Finland, France, Germany, Japan and Russian Federation, BIPAVER and ETRTO on snow tyre provisions (GRB-68-23).

36. GRB noted that informal document GRB-68-01 on the performance of used tyres, that had been announced in the provisional agenda, would be submitted to the next session.

Documentation
GRB-68-01 Intentionally blank
GRB-68-02 UN R51.03: Comments on tyre selection (China and CATARC)
GRB-68-07 GTR 16: Proposal for an Addendum to the Authorization to Develop the Amendment 2
GRB-68-12 UN R117: Comments on the Supplement proposal GRVA/2018/5 (ETRTO)
GRB-68-14 ETRTO proposals for amendments to UN Regulations Nos. 30 and 64 on Extended Mobility Tyres (ETRTO)
GRB-68-15 Wet grip test method improvement for passenger car tyres (C1) (ETRTO)
GRB-68-16 GTR 16: Development of Amendment 2 (Russia)
GRB-68-17 North American all-season tyre pre-meeting
GRB-68-18 GTR 16: Proposal for Amendment 1 (ETRTO)
GRB-68-19 UN R117: Proposal for a Supplement to the 02 series of amendments (Russia)
GRB-68-23 Snow tyres provisions: status report (BIPAVER, ETRTO, Finland, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan)
GRB-68-24 GTR 16: Light truck/C-type harmonized high speed test (USTMA)
GRRF-86-22 GTR 16: Memorandum explaining introduction of global marks for tyres
GRVA/2018/5 UN R117: Proposal for a Supplement (ETRTO)
GRVA/2018/6 UN R30: Proposal for a Supplement (ETRTO)
GRVA/2018/7 UN R64: Proposal for a Supplement (ETRTO)
GRVA/2018/8 UN R106: Proposal for amendments (ETRTO)