Product acceptance form

This form is for submitting product acceptance requests

Please provide all requested information about the product applicant and manufacturer, and justify the introduction or change by demonstrating whole life cost, safety and / or performance benefits.

You can view the types of items that typically require Product Approval, please note that this list is not exhaustive and advice may be required to determine whether your product requires approval.

Please also refer to the guidance document – How to decide what needs product acceptance for further details on the products that this process applies to.

* Note: Items required for civils infrastructure do not require approval, please refer to Network Rail standard NR/L2/CIV/003 regarding civils design approval.

Requests for civils coatings should be submitted to cataloguequeries@networkrail.co.uk along with a suitable test house certificate.

Please note that all applications need to be supported by and submitted by or on behalf of a Network Rail operative (applicant), who is prepared to act in a sponsorship capacity and who can demonstrate a Network Rail business need, or for Plant assets, by or someone from within a Plant Acceptance Body (PAB) organisation who has been designated after engagement directly by the Plant manufacturer to select a PAB.

Applications shall be new or modified controlled products that, where relevant align with the Network Rail challenge statements, that have been evaluated against the Technology (TRL) and Reliability (RRL) elements of the Rail Industry Readiness Levels (RIRL’s) where;

Technology readiness level (TRL) 6 is completed
Reliability Readiness Levels (RRL) 7 is completed as outlined in Design For Reliability standard NR/L2/RSE/0005

*Note: Evidence should be submitted to demonstrate that the product or change has met the requirements of the selected RIRL. If RIRL5 or above has been selected, evidence will need to be submitted to confirm that the Technology (TRL) and Reliability (RRL) requirements of RIRL’s 1 to 4 have been met. (Products will not normally be higher than RIRL5 as they would normally have already received Product Acceptance if RIRL 7 has been successfully completed. This also applies to changes to products or changes to how or where they are used, as changes must be assessed individually against the RIRL matrix).

Incomplete applications will not be processed until all relevant information has been submitted.

Requests for new or amended catalogue numbers should first be referred to cataloguequeries@networkrail.co.uk as technical assessment may not be required via Product Acceptance.

Application form

Please read the following guidance before filling in this form:

For further guidance please see our FAQ document or email us at prodacc@networkrail.co.uk

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required fields

Product Information

New product For changes to already approved products DFR enquiry

PA certificate number (PA05): (For changes to already approved products)

Product/system name:

Unit price (£): (For changes to already approved products without a unit price, please write N/A)

Description of product or change:

Is this a new Innovation that has not been used previously on the Network Rail Infrastructure?:
Yes
No

If this is a new Innovation please provide some details: (what the product does, what is it to be used for, how and where it will be deployed and how this differs from existing technology)

Rail Industry Readiness Level: Evidence is required to be submitted to demonstrate that the requirements of the selected RIRL has been met. if you believe that this solution has reached RIRL5 or above, evidence should be submitted that confirms that the TRL and RRL requirements of RIRL’s 1 to 4 have been met. (NB; products will not normally be higher than RIRL5 as they would have already received Product Acceptance if RIRL 7 has been successfully completed. This also applies to changes to products or changes to how or where they are used). Reliability Readiness Levels (RRL’s) relate to Design For Reliability (DFR) requirements which are specified in NR standard NR/L2/RSE/0005 and apply to the majority of new or change request applications (NB: does not apply to software or projects that commenced prior to April 2017, please email prodacc@networkrail.co.uk for clarification).
Items should not be applied for until they have completed the TRL and RRL requirements, up to and including those required to complete RIRL5, unless they wish to apply for a Design for Reliability review prior to Product Acceptance. In these cases please select DFR Enquiry (above) and reference this as a “DFR Enquiry” in the description and business case fields. (NB; the Product Acceptance technical review will not normally start until clarification has been provided that the early DFR requirements have been met). About Rail Readiness Levels (RIRLs)

Network Rail Challenge Statement alignment (For new items select the appropriate challenge statement below that aligns with your solution. If you believe that your solution does not align with any of the categories, provide clarification as to why this is not applicable in the box below.) Find out more information about challenge statements

If N/A selected above, provide reason why your solution does not align with one of the challenge statements:

Provide an explanation of how your solution aligns with the chosen challenge statement:

Applicant Details

First name:

Surname:

Job title:

Organisation:

Telephone number:

Network Rail / PAB email address:

Manufacturer details

Company name:

Address:

Contact name:

Job title (if known):

Telephone number:

Email address:

Justification

Where is the product to be deployed on the NR operational infrastructure?: (List of each geographic location/s where these are to be used or installed)

Which Network Rail Project/s is this associated with?: (List the names of project)

When is the product planned to be brought into operational service? (items should be applied for at least 90 days prior to the date they are required)

Anticipated usage: (Eg. planned budget or volume)

Business case: (Please outline the whole life cost and the safety and performance benefits that will result from the new / changed product (min 500, max 1000 characters)

Acceptance route: Please select the Network Rail Technical Authority (TA) asset owning engineering discipline (the TA Engineering Team responsible for undertaking the technical assessment of items on behalf of the Network Technical Head of the Asset).

Attach a product image and supporting documents

Maximum total size 6MB. Pdf, doc, docx, jpeg and jpg files only. e.g. photo, drawing, datasheet. Further documentation should be submitted to prodacc@networkrail.co.uk, emails should be clearly labelled with the product or system name.

Attach another supporting document:

Confirm that the manufacturer has read and accepts our general terms and conditions.

Confirm that the applicant has read the Product Acceptance Service Guidance note.

Confirm that the application has reached the required readiness levels and that evidence is available to demonstrate compliance.

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