The regulations applied to airbag bas, analyzing gas and slightly flammable refrigerants of new type have been eased by the “Partial Revision of Enforcement Ordinance of high Pressure Gas Safety Act” which was enacted on November 1.

Eased were two regulations restricting ①Products using a small quantity of high pressure gas (airbag, etc.) and ②Slightly flammable refrigerants of new type having less global warming potential (GWP).

As for ①, products having comparatively fewer risks were exempted from the items using high pressure gas of 150ℓ or less such as airbag or analyzing equipment. Out of those applied to ②,slightly flammable new refrigerants of low GWP were classified as “Designated Inert Gases”, and they only must be registered some items required for permission of use as high pressure gases. Classified this time as “Designated Inert Gases” were three products; HFO-1234yf, HFO-1234ze and HFC-32.

In the background, the amount of high pressure gas used in various airbags is extremely small as represented by supercritical chromatography analyzer, auto cycle, high-place work or avalanche rescue, of which risks are almost similar to those of the exempted items from the High Pressure Gas Safety Act. In addition, it seems to be intended to diffuse refrigerants of low GWP and less environmental concerns. Furthermore, on April 1 of next year, the effective period of safety inspection will be extended applicable to the plants which implement highly autonomous safety measures. In practical terms, the effective period of periodical autonomous inspection will be extended from 5 to 7 years for the companies who carry out constant monitoring and warning detections to find abnormality of equipment using IoT or big data.

On November 21, in accordance with the relaxation, Honeywell Japan announced in its news release that the propellant for aerosol (product name: “SOLSTICE”) was classified as a designated inert gas. The name of product is HFO-01234ze (Z) of which GWP is less than 1. The company is proud to say that it is one of the cutting-edge environment-friendly products made by the company.