Unconfirmed Minutes from the last Management Board meeting, held on 16th April 2010 are available to CEC Group members on the CEC Web Site.

An update on the new Biodiesel Test follows:
TDG-L-104 Group had its first meeting on 12th April 2010 when Officers for the Group were elected.  All Sponsors sent experienced representatives to the meeting and many sponsoring companies have reserve representatives, in case of need.  Joachim Vetter of APL has been elected Chairman of the Group, with the full support of the CEC Board. The Group is in the process of producing a tender document for the supply of reference fuels.

An update on severity issues and recent engine failures.
A Task Force has been in contact with PSA to try to determine the cause of severity problems and some of the remaining sponsorship funds will be used to investigate the effect of injection timing on severity.  The Group met in November to discuss the problems but there was no support for declaring the test ‘out of control’ at this time.  A plan of investigative tests was agreed.
Since this time two laboratories have reported a total of 10 engine failures.  Concerns have been passed to PSA.
It should be noted that the test remains accepted within CEC for zinc-doped fuel only. (Refer to minute 4.3 of CEC Board Meeting on 5th February 2008).
The Board has agreed that no further development work should be carried out on non-zinc-doped fuels until the engine failure and severity issues are overcome.

The future of CEC F-16-96 (VW Waterboxer test) and CEC F-23-01 (XUD 9 test) is to be discussed during a telephone conference involving representatives of ACEA, ATC and CONCAWE.  
An update on the future of these tests and any requirements for replacement tests, should be communicated to the CEC Board at its next meeting.

It is possible that this test could be available for a further 3 years with support from PSA, if a new supplier of camshafts and rockers can be found.  
PSA is working on this option, but without any guarantee.  There is currently 6 months of testing capacity remaining at 3 laboratories.

CEC is informed that the availability of this test is extended to end 2012.  It is also understood that PSA is interested in introducing a replacement test using a DV6 Euro V engine for the ACEA 2012 specifications.

The incident reported in our last Newsletter about incorrect labelling of a Reference Oil was old information.
The Reference Oils Group had already investigated the incident and addressed procedures to ensure that this error did not happen again.  We apologise for any confusion caused.
Concerns relating to the content of Material Safety Data Sheets that accompany the transportation of Reference Oils are still to be addressed, such as the inclusion of information about country of origin vs. protecting the anonymity of the original supplier.

The Rating Steering Group met on 14th April 2010 after a gap of 2 years.  
The outcome of the meeting was positive, objectives were re-established and the Group is now on track to meet annually. Rating Workshops were discussed in some detail.  There was support for both generic workshops, as well as specific ones for a particular CEC test, but there may be confidentiality issues to address regarding sponsored tests. 

The CEC Guidelines will soon include a definition of what is meant by ‘available’ and ‘not available’ for clarification.  
Also, all CEC Tests that are available electronically on the CEC Web Site, but are no longer supported by a CEC Group will be clearly marked as ‘unsupported’ to ensure there is no doubt about the status of the test.
The CEC Quality Statement, Disclaimer and Obligation that accompanies every CEC Test Method will be reviewed with the aim of strengthening the message about the requirements for claiming a ‘CEC Result’ for a test.

Opening Hours are Monday to Thursday, 0800-1730 hours.  The CEC Secretariat office is closed on Fridays.

New Ideas?  Questions to Ask?  Guidance Required?  Support is available from Lyn, Barry and Monique.  See the CEC Web Site for details:  www.cectests.org