What a portable fuel container must meet to be sold in the United States and California.
A fuel can that clears UN transport rules can still be barred from sale in the United States. Portable fuel containers face a separate set of federal and California requirements. This is background, not legal advice; confirm current rules and your product's certification before you import.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets federal rules for portable fuel containers. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) sets its own, generally stricter, rules for sale in California. A can sold nationwide has to satisfy both where they apply.
The core of the EPA and CARB rules is emissions. A container must limit how much fuel vapour permeates its walls, and limit spillage and evaporation in use. In practice this drives an automatic-closing spout with no separate vent hole, and a low-permeation material or treatment. Steel does not permeate, which removes one hurdle; a plastic can meets the limit through the correct grade and a treatment such as fluorination.
Under the Children's Gasoline Burn Prevention Act, portable gasoline containers sold in the US must have a child-resistant closure meeting the Consumer Product Safety Commission standard (16 CFR 1460). It is a tested design feature of the cap, not an add-on. We supply child-resistant closures to that pattern.
The Portable Fuel Container Safety Act requires portable fuel containers to include a flame mitigation device, a flame arrestor that stops a flame flashing back into the can. Confirm the current effective scope and sizes, and that the device fitted is a listed one. We supply flame mitigation devices for this.
To sell a fuel can in the US, the closure and spout system carries most of the compliance load: automatic shutoff, child-resistant, flame-arrested, and low-permeation as a whole. Ask your supplier for the certification or registration for the exact can and closure, and confirm CARB separately if you sell in California.
We specify the closure, spout and flame-mitigation components to the standard your market requires, and supply the documentation with the order rather than assume it. Tell us the destination and we build to its rules. Start with the fuel and gas cans range.
Tell us your market, your fuel and your volumes. We come back with a specification sheet and a quotation.