The Commission internationale permanente pour l'épreuve des armes à feu portatives (English: Permanent International Commission for the Proof of Small Arms), commonly abbreviated C.I.P., is an international organisation which sets standards for safety testing of firearms.

tests small arms almost exclusively; it is ordinarily omitted from the English translation of the name.)

safeguards that all firearms and ammunition sold to civilian purchasers in member states are safe for the users.

Prior to firing cartridges in the firearm to be proofed, it is checked for its essential mechanical dimensions such all measures and tolerances in the chamber are verified.

maximum pressure limit is also possible for consumers who intend to use their firearms under extreme conditions (hot climates, long series of shots, etc.).

Governmental organizations, like military and police forces and other firearms bearing public power agencies, from the C.I.P.

Proof testing is compulsory in Belgium since the decree of Maximilian Henry of Bavaria dated 10 May 1672.

A convention[2] between 8 member states was signed in 1969, ratified and converted into law in each signing state, so that the rules can be enforced to assure that every firearm and cartridge on the market has successfully passed the compulsory proofing and approval.

member state: The Permanent International Commission, confirming that the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is no longer in existence, declared during the XXII Plenary Session that the proof marks of the Proof House at Kragujevac, Serbia, would no longer be recognised by the C.I.P.

votes in Plenary Sessions on submitted sub-commission proposals, resulting in decisions and the publishing of them.

This implies that all decisions made by C.I.P., although enforced by law after publication, are the result of a cautious consensus between sensible and knowledgeable people in this field.

In case a firearm was voluntary successfully tested at a higher than the normally required proof-test pressure superior proof marks are applied on the relevant parts.

approved number to allow quality/safety traceability according to ISO 9000 principles in case of quality problem though C.I.P.

As a result, the compulsory ammunition safety control tests by the manufacturers themselves and their approval by the proof houses are only pressure related.

The view is that in the very unlikely case (according to the current quality standards) the cartridge is too long, once pressed by the bolt, the pressure will rise too high causing rejection.

Due to environmental regulations, hunters in Europe are required to use lead loaded ammunition carefully.

This makes it necessary for manufacturers to market new types of lead free shotgun ammunition loaded with steel pellets.

Many variations in steel and alloy quality exist, but even so, harder metals, especially steel, are known to wear a barrel excessively over time if the shot column velocity and momentum (velocity multiplied by mass) are too great.

imposed obligation for manufacture of shotshell gauges for 12, 16, and 20, in standard and high performance versions.

member states, in the interests of safety most Proof Houses afford those parties opportunity to batch test their ammunition to ensure that the associated chamber pressures, velocities and momentum are within acceptable standards.

Previous tests of this nature in the past have indicated the poor standards adopted by some of such parties and the lack of uniformity between rounds of ammunition.

For all other small arms ammunition for use in "non-NATO Chamber" weapons, NATO has chosen to conform to the procedures as defined by the current C.I.P.

Decisions are updated, modified and published every one or two years in the form of a Comprehensive Edition of Adopted C.I.P.

To a lesser extent there are also some geometric dimensioning and tolerancing differences in some chamberings known as the Delta L problem.

The possibility of chambering and/or feeding problems in a firearm caused by the Delta L problem can not be compared with SAAMI's Unsafe Arms and Ammunition Combinations which details situations where a smaller cartridge may fit in a firearm designed for a larger cartridge, but would be unsafe to use.

almost exclusively uses one type of Piezoelectric sensor (called a "channel sensor") made by the Swiss company Kistler[13][14] or the Austrian-made HPi GP6 that both require drilling of the cartridge case before firing the proofing cartridge in a specially made test barrel.

For shotshell ammunition, the technical variations are easier to solve since only one type of Piezoelectric sensor (called "tangential sensor") is available from the PCB Piezotronics and Kistler International companies to be used without drilling and which does not vary between SAAMI standards and C.I.P.

proof test standards a drilled case is used and the piezo measuring device (transducer) is positioned at a predefined distance from the breech face when the length of the cartridge case permits that, including limits.

When the length of the cartridge case is too short or too long, pressure measurement will take place at a cartridge specific location defined at a shorter or longer distance from the breech face and depending on the dimensions of the case.

In this system every manufacturer has set aside a batch (also named "lot") of ammunition they consider to be of very good quality and representative of what they need to produce later.