Dangerous Goods by Road
The body and heads of the drum and their joins shall be of a design appropriate to the capacity of the
drum and to its intended use.
The assembled packaging shall be sufficiently water resistant so as not to delaminate under normal
conditions of carriage.
Maximum capacity of drum: 450 litres.
Maximum net mass: 400 kg.
Plastics drums and jerricans
1H1 drums, non-removable head
1H2 drums, removable head
3H1 jerricans, non-removable head
3H2 jerricans, removable head
The packaging shall be manufactured from suitable plastics material and be of adequate strength in
relation to its capacity and intended use. Except for recycled plastics material as defined in 1.2.1, no
used material other than production residues or regrind from the same manufacturing process may be
used. The packaging shall be adequately resistant to ageing and to degradation caused either by the
substance contained or by ultra-violet radiation. Any permeation of the substance contained in the
package, or recycled plastics material used to produce new packaging, shall not constitute a danger
under normal conditions of carriage.
If protection against ultra-violet radiation is required, it shall be provided by the addition of carbon
black or other suitable pigments or inhibitors. These additives shall be compatible with the contents
and remain effective throughout the life of the packaging. Where use is made of carbon black,
pigments or inhibitors other than those used in the manufacture of the tested design type, retesting
may be waived if the carbon black content does not exceed 2% by mass or if the pigment content does
not exceed 3% by mass; the content of inhibitors of ultra-violet radiation is not limited.
Additives serving purposes other than protection against ultra-violet radiation may be included in the
composition of the plastics material provided that they do not adversely affect the chemical and
physical properties of the material of the packaging. In such circumstances, retesting may be waived.
The wall thickness at every point of the packaging shall be appropriate to its capacity and intended
use, taking into account the stresses to which each point is liable to be exposed.
Openings for filling, emptying and venting in the bodies or heads of non-removable head drums (1H1)
and jerricans (3H1) shall not exceed 7 cm in diameter. Drums and jerricans with larger openings are
considered to be of the removable head type (1H2 and 3H2). Closures for openings in the bodies or
heads of drums and jerricans shall be so designed and applied that they will remain secure and
leakproof under normal conditions of carriage. Gaskets or other sealing elements shall be used with
closures unless the closure is inherently leakproof.
Closure devices for removable head drums and jerricans (1H2 and 3H2) shall be so designed and
applied that they will remain secure and leakproof under normal conditions of carriage. Gaskets shall
be used with all removable heads unless the drum or jerrican design is such that, where the removable
head is properly secured, the drum or jerrican is inherently leakproof.
The maximum permissible permeability for flammable liquids shall be 0.008 g/l.h at 23 °C
(see 6.1.5.7).
Where recycled plastics material is used for production of new packaging, the specific properties of
the recycled material shall be assured and documented regularly as part of a quality assurance
programme recognised by the competent authority. The quality assurance programme shall include a
record of proper pre-sorting and verification that each batch of recycled plastics material has the
proper melt flow rate, density, and tensile yield strength, consistent with that of the design type
manufactured from such recycled material. This necessarily includes knowledge about the packaging
material from which the recycled plastics have been derived, as well as the awareness of the prior
contents of those packagings if those prior contents might reduce the capability of new packaging
produced using that material. In addition, the packaging manufacturer's quality assurance programme
under 6.1.1.4 shall include performance of the mechanical design type test in 6.1.5 on packagings
manufactured from each batch of recycled plastics material. In this testing, stacking performance may
be verified by appropriate dynamic compression testing rather than static load testing.
NOTE: ISO 16103:2005 – "Packaging – Transport packaging for dangerous goods - Recycled
plastics material" provides additional guidance on procedures to be followed in approving the use of
recycled plastics material.
Maximum capacity of drums and jerricans:
1H1, 1H2: 450 litres
3H1, 3H2: 60 litres.
Maximum net mass:
1H1, 1H2: 400 kg
3H1, 3H2: 120 kg.