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French to English translations [PRO] Tech/Engineering - Materials (Plastics, Ceramics, etc.) / Health and safety regulations - conservation
French term or phrase:la règle des 10/12 (de la durée de conservation)
I am translating a contract outlining the terms of sale between a supplier and a buyer. The products are items of workplace safety equipment, and the contract specifies requirements for items that are hazardous or have an expiry date:
"Si certains produits du Fournisseur sont soumis à date de péremption ou sont des produits « dangereux », ils devront présenter un marquage lisible, indiqué clairement sur le produit et le colis (et non sous forme de code), mentionnant la date limite d’utilisation ou à défaut la date de fabrication, **et ils devront répondre à la règle des 10/12 de la durée de conservation**, sous peine de refus de réception."
durée de conservation = shelf or storage life, but "la règle des 10/12"? None of the results I find on the net are remotely connected to this field or help me to deduce its meaning. I will be directing an enquiry to the client, but I'd like to keep looking for help anyway.
Explanation: what this means is that the Buyer won't accept any products that have less than 10/12th of their "useful lifespan" still left to run. Buyers don't want products that are near their "expiry date" that would have to be written off quite quickly.
A lot of safety/security equipment never get used but still has to be scrapped after a certain use-by date - example: it makes no sense buying brand new fire extinguishers that are in perfect working order if they would have to be scrapped next week because their "durée de conservation" has come to an end.
10/12 = 10 over 12. It's a fraction, ten twelfths. Expressed as a percentage, as Didier has pointed out, that gives you 83.33 recurring. I guess that's probably the same thing as an 85% shelf-life rule. That is probably where you should be looking. I suppose your choices are to stick to either a litteral translation (the ten twelfths shelf-life rule), or to consider that '85 percent shelf-life rule' is the equivalent and go with that.
Afterwards, you just need to look back to your context to see how it's being expressed in the sentence. It could be rendered thus : "... and they must satisfy the 10/12ths (85%) shelf-life rule. "
This sort of principle occurred to me, but I could not find anything to support it, perhaps because percentages are used instead. @Didier - you said the product should have 2/12 shelf life left, Daryo is saying 10/12. I think it must be the latter, I don't think a company would receive goods with 17% shelf life remaining. But obviously this is the general idea.
'10/12 shelf-life rule' in inverted commas as it is being used in a specific context and hyphen if used as an adjective. See http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/100843 Minimum Shelf Life Criteria. In accordance with DoD 4140.27-M, Section 2-12 (A),“Acquisition/procurement documentation shall specify that shelf life items/materiel will have not less than 85 percent (allowing for rounding to whole months) of shelf life remaining at time of receipt by the first government activity." Any direct delivery from a GSA supplier to our customer, not having at least 85 percent shelf life remaining, will normally be considered non-conforming.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm... The ‘10-day shelf-life rule’ will therefore apply in this case, unless the product characteristics will control for the risks of Clostridium botulinum (see paragraph 23 of Section 2 of the document for further explanation).
Yes, that's exactly it! We've even had a very similar concept discussed before on KudoZ, but I can't think how it would be possible to search for it...
The product(s) should have at least 2/12 of their self life remaining when received
Part of the shelf life is consumed between manufacturing and delivery, this part should not be more than 10/12 of the life. This could admittedly be better explained with 83%, but as many shelf lifes are in years, it could prove easier: - shelf life 24 months: 4 months at least remaining at delivery - shelf life 12 months: 2 months at least
Dear all, thanks for your comments. Nikki, there is no official text referred to in this section. It's such an odd expression that I'm not even sure how I'd approach it literally. I have referred it to the client and will be interested to see what comes back. It is a help really when no one else can decipher it, as I feel I have exhausted all possibilities. I'll keep you posted!
It is a bit off track, but it might refer to information tracability (Décret d’application de la LCEN sur la conservation des données par les FAI et hébergeurs) "Ainsi, on se retrouve avec un texte à la fois plus précis que le décret portant plus généralement sur les opérateurs – cf. articles R.10-12 à R.10-22 du code des postes et communications électroniques (et qui concerne donc aussi les fournisseurs d’accès à Internet), mais difficile à compare)
I thought it might be a date (of a convention?) or in reference to an article of that type of document, but as Phil says, without much more information, you cannot be certain. Obviously you can't invent it and so your default solution may well turn out to be fairly word for word and footnoted.
I do note that the expression is plural which suggests "dix douzièmes", a fraction which is probably a key to understanding this. It may be in relation to 12 months as Phil suggests and thus be something to do with 10 months out of 12 months.
If your customer doesn't understand it, they can always ask whoever wrote the document. My guess is that "12" refers to months, but I'd just put a translator's note saying the meaning is unclear.
Explanation: what this means is that the Buyer won't accept any products that have less than 10/12th of their "useful lifespan" still left to run. Buyers don't want products that are near their "expiry date" that would have to be written off quite quickly.
A lot of safety/security equipment never get used but still has to be scrapped after a certain use-by date - example: it makes no sense buying brand new fire extinguishers that are in perfect working order if they would have to be scrapped next week because their "durée de conservation" has come to an end.
Daryo United Kingdom Local time: 04:19 Native speaker of: Serbian, French PRO pts in category: 8
Grading comment
Belated thanks, Daryo. I will rephrase this a little for the glossary, but you hit the nail on the head.
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Daryo, it must be something like this, but do you know where I could find the principle stated? Is your confidence based on your own experience?
EN URGENCE : • retirer l’ensemble des vêtements souillés ; • lavage abondant à l’eau en appliquant la règle des 10/15 : eau froide à 10/15°C ruisselant à 10/15 cm de la lésion pendant au moins 10 à 15 minutes montre en main ; • [...] (http://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=...
peer agreement (net): +1
