ICC-ES AC70 is the acceptance criteria that ICC Evaluation Service uses to evaluate power-actuated fasteners driven into concrete, steel, and masonry. It sets the testing protocols, performance benchmarks, and quality-control requirements a manufacturer must satisfy before ICC-ES will issue an Evaluation Service Report confirming the fastener complies with the International Building Code and International Residential Code.1ICC Evaluation Service. Acceptance Criteria for Power-Actuated Fasteners Driven into Concrete, Steel and Masonry Elements Building officials, structural engineers, and contractors encounter it whenever a project specifies power-actuated fasteners for structural connections and someone needs proof the fasteners actually perform as advertised.
Think of AC70 as the rulebook and the ESR as the result. The criteria tell manufacturers what tests to run, what data to collect, and what quality systems to maintain. The ESR is the public document that tells a building official a specific product passed those requirements. ICC-ES develops acceptance criteria like AC70 when no existing code provision or industry standard clearly covers how to evaluate a particular type of product.2ICC Evaluation Service. Frequently Asked Questions
What AC70 Covers
The full title is “Acceptance Criteria for Power-Actuated Fasteners Driven into Concrete, Steel and Masonry Elements.” It applies to fasteners driven by explosive charge or compressed gas into three categories of base material:1ICC Evaluation Service. Acceptance Criteria for Power-Actuated Fasteners Driven into Concrete, Steel and Masonry Elements
- Concrete, including uncracked concrete, hollow-core precast concrete slabs, and concrete-filled steel deck panels.
- Steel members at least 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) thick.
- Uncracked concrete masonry units complying with ASTM C90.
The fasteners themselves must have a Rockwell C hardness above 45, meaning they are heat-treated hard enough to penetrate these base materials without fracturing on impact. AC70 evaluates them as alternatives to anchor bolts in concrete and masonry, and as alternatives to welds and bolts in steel. That is the whole point of the criteria: giving building officials a way to approve power-actuated fasteners where traditional connection methods would otherwise be required.
Scope has firm edges. The criteria address only tension and shear resistance of the individual fastener in the base material. Closely spaced fastener groups that act collectively fall outside the scope, as do pull-over and bearing failures in the attached material. AC70 is also limited to redundant applications, meaning the connection system must have enough fasteners that failure of any single one does not cause structural collapse.
Testing and Performance Data Requirements
Physical testing is the core of any AC70 evaluation. Manufacturers must test their fasteners under ASTM E1190-21, the current standard test methods for determining the static tensile and shear strength of power-actuated fasteners in concrete, masonry, and steel.3ASTM International. E1190 Standard Test Methods for Strength of Power-Actuated Fasteners An older version, ASTM E1190-11(2018), may still appear in some existing ESRs, but ICC-ES has proposed that new testing programs rely on the 2021 revision.1ICC Evaluation Service. Acceptance Criteria for Power-Actuated Fasteners Driven into Concrete, Steel and Masonry Elements
Testing must produce ultimate tension and shear strength values across multiple base material thicknesses, grades, and strengths. For steel base materials, yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation must be verified through testing per ASTM A370 or mill certification. For concrete, test slabs must be designed, placed, and cured per IBC Chapter 19, with compressive strength verified through cylinders per ASTM C31/C39 or cores per ASTM C42. Masonry specimens must comply with ASTM C90, with density and compressive strength data drawn from the same lot used in fastener testing.
Reported capacities use allowable stress design values. There is one exception. Fasteners installed in steel may also report load and resistance factor design values, which matters to engineers who work in LRFD frameworks and need design values they can use without conversion.
Laboratory Accreditation
All testing must be performed at a laboratory accredited under ISO/IEC 17025 by an accreditation body that participates in the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation’s Mutual Recognition Arrangement. The laboratory’s scope of accreditation must specifically include the type of testing being reported. ICC-ES may accept results from a non-accredited laboratory only if the manufacturer submits evidence, including findings from an on-site assessment by an ICC-ES representative, that the lab independently conforms to ISO/IEC 17025 for the work in question.4ICC Evaluation Service. ICC-ES Rules of Procedure for Building Product Listings
Base Material Conditions Behind the Listed Loads
Allowable loads in an ESR are tied to specific base material conditions. The numbers are not universal. They shift with base material thickness, strength, and type, and installation conditions have to match what was tested.
For concrete, fasteners must be driven when the concrete has reached the manufacturer’s prescribed installation strength, with a tolerance of plus 1,000 psi or minus 400 psi. Driving into concrete that has not reached the target strength produces unreliable embedment and voids the listed load values. For hollow-core precast slabs, the concrete thickness at the cores must be at least 3/8 inch greater than the embedment depth of the fastener, and fasteners cannot contact the prestressing strands.1ICC Evaluation Service. Acceptance Criteria for Power-Actuated Fasteners Driven into Concrete, Steel and Masonry Elements
For steel, the minimum base material thickness is 1/8 inch, and the steel plates used in testing must be large enough to accommodate the spacing and edge distances required by ASTM E1190 Table 1. For concrete-filled steel deck panels, both the deck product specifications and the steel mechanical properties must be documented.
Manufacturing Quality Control
Earning an ESR is only half the challenge. Keeping it requires an ongoing quality system that proves every fastener leaving the factory matches what was tested in the lab. Each production facility must maintain a quality manual covering material sourcing, manufacturing tolerances, and in-house testing procedures. Internal checks include hardness testing and dimensional verification on each production batch to catch drift before it becomes a compliance problem.
All ESR holders are subject to regular surveillance inspections conducted by ICC-ES representatives or by third-party inspection agencies accredited and contracted by ICC-ES.5ICC Evaluation Service. Inspections The inspector reviews the manufacturer’s quality documentation, checks that the quality system is actually being followed in practice, and documents any discrepancies as Corrective Action Requests that generally must be resolved within 30 days.6ICC Evaluation Service. Mfg. Inspections The goal is to verify that the product being manufactured today is the same product that earned recognition through laboratory testing.
Persistent quality failures or unresolved corrective actions can lead to suspension of the ESR. A suspended report means building officials will no longer accept the product as code-compliant, which effectively shuts the manufacturer out of any jurisdiction that relies on ICC-ES reports for product approval.
How a Manufacturer Gets an ESR Under AC70
Once testing is complete and the quality system is documented, the manufacturer submits an application through ICC-ES along with the applicable fees.7ICC Evaluation Service. Get Certified ICC-ES publishes a fee schedule that determines cost based on items covered in the report, additional listees, page costs, and inspection fees; specific amounts vary by product complexity.8ICC Evaluation Service. Rules for Evaluation Reports Application and renewal fees are nonrefundable unless a refund is specifically authorized by ICC-ES leadership.
The application package must include all test data, the quality manual, a list of manufacturing locations, and detailed product specifications covering shank diameter, head configuration, material composition, and hardness ratings. An ICC-ES staff engineer then conducts a technical review, checking the test data against AC70 requirements and verifying IBC and IRC compliance. This review can take several months, particularly if the engineer requests additional testing or clarifications.
Upon successful review and a qualifying factory inspection, ICC-ES issues the ESR. The report becomes a publicly accessible document that building officials anywhere in the country can reference. Manufacturers renew the ESR on a one-year or two-year cycle and pay the renewal fee in the current fee schedule to keep the report active.
What Happens Without an ESR
A power-actuated fastener that lacks an ESR is not automatically prohibited by the building code. IBC Section 104.11 allows building officials to approve alternative materials not specifically prescribed by the code, provided the official determines the alternative is satisfactory and at least equivalent to code-prescribed options in quality, strength, effectiveness, fire resistance, durability, and safety.9ICC Digital Codes. International Building Code – Section 104.11 Alternative Materials, Design and Methods of Construction and Equipment If the official denies the alternative, the denial must be in writing with stated reasons.
In practice this path is harder and less predictable than holding an ESR. The manufacturer or contractor has to convince the local building official, who may not have engineering expertise in fastener mechanics, that the product performs equivalently. That usually means submitting the same kind of test data AC70 requires anyway, but without the credibility of a third-party evaluation. Most building officials prefer seeing an ESR because it shifts the technical verification burden to ICC-ES rather than requiring them to evaluate raw test data themselves.
For a manufacturer, going through the AC70 process and obtaining an ESR is the most reliable route to broad market acceptance. For an engineer or building official, an ESR issued under AC70 provides a standardized, peer-reviewed basis for approving power-actuated fasteners across concrete, steel, and masonry without having to assess each product from scratch.