AC 440 Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance Criteria

ICC-ES states the following regarding its Acceptance Criteria (AC) process:

ICC-ES Acceptance Criteria
Generally, it is necessary for ICC-ES to develop acceptance criteria for products and systems that are alternates to what is specified in the code, or that fall under code provisions that are not sufficiently clear for the issuance of an evaluation report. Acceptance criteria are developed by the ICC-ES technical staff in consultation with the report applicant and with input from interested parties; are usually the subject of open public hearings of the ICC-ES Evaluation Committee (made up entirely of code officials); and are approved by the Evaluation Committee after issues raised during the hearings are resolved.

After approval, acceptance criteria can be revised at subsequent committee meetings, provided the ICC-ES staff receives a request for revision and adequate substantiating data. The Evaluation Committee has also approved guidelines under which the ICC-ES staff may editorially revise and update some acceptance criteria. What is typically not as well-known, is the following policy that ICC-ES has created surrounding the AC process: This policy can be found in the ICC-ES April 2011 Rules of Procedure by the Evaluation Committee. The key point being that consideration of any acceptance criteria must be in conjunction with a current and valid application for an ICC-ES evaluation report, an existing ICC-ES evaluation report, or as otherwise determined by the Evaluation Committee.

What is typically not as well-known, is the following policy that ICC-ES has created surrounding the AC process:

This policy can be found in the ICC-ES April 2011 Rules of Procedure by the Evaluation Committee. The key point being that consideration of any acceptance criteria must be in conjunction with a current and valid application for an ICC-ES evaluation report, an existing ICC-ES evaluation report, or as otherwise determined by the Evaluation Committee.