ISO and ASTM Standards

FIGURE 25.1 Similarity in chemical structures between L-lactic acid and L-alanine. 

Several international standards for the characterization of soils were developed by standardization bodies in several countries among them the standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) are well known. These are briefly listed in Tables 14.23 and 14.24. 

ISO 11264 Soil quality - Determination of herbicides. Method using HPLC with UV-detection. 

ISO/CD 17512-1 Soil quality - Avoidance test for testing the quality of soils and effects of chemicals on behavior. Part 1 Test with earthworms (Eisenia fetida and Eisenia andrei). 

ISO/CD 17924 Soil quality - Bioavailability of metals in contaminated soil. Physiologically based extraction method. 

ISO/CD 18512 Soil quality - Guidance on long and short term storage of soil samples. 

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ISO 1182 [13] is essentially a simplified version of ASTM D1929 in which the furnace is held at 750 C. Specimens are classed as combustible if ignited. This is indicated by a 50 C temperature rise or by flaming for more than 10 s. The test is applied to building materials and is unlikely to be passed by plastics. Similar tests are defined by ISO and ASTM standards. 

Table 1.8 ISO and ASTM Standards for Common Polymer Families...

For the design data, the relevant properties that need to be evaluated along with the applicable ISO and ASTM standard methods are summarized in Tables 11.12 and 11.13, respectively. For some of the properties like pvT data, no-flow temperature, ejection temperature, and fatigue in tension, etc., no national or international standards exist today. Efforts are under way to develop industrywide standards for these properties. Suggested test conditions in Tables 11.12 and 11.13 are intended to serve as a guide in establishing specific test conditions for the purpose of developing comparable data. 

More recently, international and national standards bodies, i.e. International Organization for Standardization (ISO), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Japanese Standards Association (JIS) and European Organization for Standardization (EN), have developed definitions related to the degradation of plastics. Nowad s, ISO and ASTM standards exist describing in detail the pmposes of biodegradable and compostable . 

Other performances in relation to nonwoven fabric applications are also defined in EDANA/EMDA, ISO, and ASTM standards. Some examples are as follows ... 

In both ISO and ASTM standards, a loaded test bar is placed in a silicone oil filled heating bath. The surface stress on the specimen is either low - for ASTM and ISO both 0.45 MPa high = for ASTM 1.82 MPa and for ISO 1.80 MPa. The force is allowed to act for 5 min this waiting period may be omitted when testing materials that show no appreciable creep during the initial 5 min. After 5 min the original bath temperature of 23° C is raised at a uniform rate of 2°C/min. 

Many procedures are described in enough detail to permit an experienced analyst to understand the principles behind the procedures and even to use them for exploratory work. It is expected that the original reference will be obtained if the analyst intends to use a method routinely. It was necessary to omit many of the details required to obtain precise results, particularly in the case of ISO and ASTM standards. 

When round robin tests were performed to test the reproducibility of these standard procedures, large coefficients of variation between laboratories were obtained for tin-free paints (78-80% and 24-32% for the ISO and ASTM methods respectively Haslbeck and Holm, 2005). These discrepancies have multiple sources such as the analytical method (Haslbeck and Holm (2005) report 4-54% deviations when different laboratories measuring samples of known concentration), the sea water conditions both in the holding tank and the measuring tank (Haslbeck and Holm, 2005), the sample preparation for analysis... 

This will be a very brief section because the present situation is that the only ISO, BS and ASTM standards to cover forced vibration dynamic apparatus are the guides 2 discussed earlier in the chapter, plus the ASTM moving die processability test covered in Chapter 6. 

There does not seem to be a fully comprehensive and up to date critical account of dynamic test machines and methods for rubbers, which is particularly unfortunate because of the large variety of machines now available and the sometimes confusing claims of manufacturers. Descriptions of several machines available prior to 1960 are given by Payne and Scott11 and there were reviews in the 1974 ASTM publication58. Also of course, the ISO, BS and ASTM standard guides give a useful outline of the pros and cons of the different approaches. 

The ISO and BS standards now express the ozone concentration in ppb to satisfy prefix purists, with the more traditional and familiar pphm in brackets. However, ASTM D1149 now uses partial pressure in mPa to eliminate differences due to atmospheric pressure at different altitudes, but ISO 1431-1 only mentions it in a note. ISO 1431-3 gives the options of mg/m3 and mPa in addition to pphm but ppb had not yet become fashionable in 2000 when it was published. The significance of partial pressure has been demonstrated by Veith and Evans48. Basically, the rate of cracking is a function of the collision rate of ozone molecules with the rubber. At different atmospheric pressures in the cabinet, the collision rate, and hence the cracking, will be different at the same concentration expressed in pphm. Clearly, the effect is important in locations with, relatively speaking, extremes of pressure from standard. 

A text devoted to the physical testing of rubbers based on experience at Rapra first appeared in 1965 with the publication of the work of the late Dr J R Scott, who was widely regarded as the father of rubber testing . The first edition of my own book came in 1979 and the second, third and now this fourth edition reflect the continuing technical developments over four decades. There have been many changes in the methods used but, more especially, there have been vast improvements to much of the instrumentation as more modern technologies are adopted by instrument manufacturers and the requirements of industry become more sophisticated. Since the last edition of the book, the majority of International (ISO) and ASTM test methods standards have been revised. 

The book indexes all ASTM, ISO and DIN standards mentioned in the text. It also lists trade names and references them to the text. 

These properties are covered partly or wholly by ASTM, ISO, and BS standards. ASTM D1895 [2] defines all three properties relevant to the standard as follows ... 

ISO 4628-2 ASTM D714 Blistering These standards describe a method for assessing the degree of bhstering of coatings by comparison with pictorial standards. The ISO standard has adopted the pictorial standards from ASTM and includes the correlation between the ISO and ASTM rating systems... 

As a result, specified periods of time, specific disposal pathways, and standard test methodologies were incorporated into definitions. Standardisation organisations such as CEN, ISO, and ASTM were consequently encouraged to rapidly develop standard biodegradation tests so these could be determined. Society further demanded undebatable criteria for the evaluation of the suitability of polymeric materials for disposal in specific waste streams such as composting or anaerobic digestion. Biodegradability is usually just one of the essential criteria, besides ecotoxicity, effects on waste treatment processes, etc. 

For the composting environment, specification standards with definite pass / fail criteria requirements are available as ASTM, ISO, and EN standards. All the standards are harmonized and have very minor differences but the basic principles and requirements are the same. EN 13432 and ISO 18606 are specification standards for packaging. The specification standards are as follows ... 

The rest of this hook consists of property data on many plastics and elastomers. Chapters 2—10 contain multipoint data in the form of plots. The plastics are grouped hy the basic chemical structures of the plastics. Each of these chapters contains a short introduction that descrihes the basic chemical structures of the plastics in that chapter. The figures that follow contain the multipoint data. They are grouped by the t5rpe of data. Generally stress vs. strain curves start the chapter, followed by various modulus measurements, strength measures, other physical properties, and electrical properties. These properties are measured by the appropriate ISO or ASTM standards. 

This chapter contains data in tabular form. These data are described in the standard ISO 10350-1 1998, which is titled Plastics—Acquisition and presentation of comparable single-point data—Part 1 Moulding materials. Standard ISO 10350 identifies specific test procedures for the acquisition and presentation of comparable data for many basic properties of plastics. The properties included are often in manufacturers data sheets. In fact many manufacturers, particularly those based in Europe, provide an ISO 10350 Technical Data Sheet, along with a generalized technical data sheet that contains a mixture of ISO and ASTM data. All the data on ISO 10350 are defined by ISO standards rather than ASTM standards. Part 1 applies to unreinforced and reinforced thermoplastic and thermosetting materials, the subject of this book. 

Testing of materials is governed by standards. We shall often refer below to those of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), West Conshohocken, PA. However, as national economies become more and more connected into a global economy, the use of standards defined by the International Standards Organization (ISO) is on the increase. In Table 24.2 we list several ISO and ASTM tests. 

The key documents which define the appropriate tests for a specific type of material in both ISO/IEC and ASTM approaches are material standards. These material documents within ISO and ASTM are similar in that they both contain specimen preparation conditions, conditioning, and specific testing parameters for that material. The corresponding material standards for common polymer families are listed in Table 11.19. 

Information in this table is accurate as of June 1, 1999. ISO and ASTM standars have mandatory 5-y revisions however the standards can he revised i needed. 

The laboratory animal tests are to analyze the number and cause of deaths and incapacitation of small animals like rats or mice when the animals are exposed to the gaseous products of decomposition and combustion under carefully controlled conditions. Lethality parameters usually used include LDgg (dose lethal for 50% of the test animals), LCgo (concentration lethal for 50% of the test animals) and LTgg (time lethal for 50% of the test animals). Various such toxicity tests are currently used such as NBS Cup Furnace Method and DIN 53436 Tube Furnace Method although none of these have been as yet accepted by standards bodies such as ISO and ASTM. 

A number of tests exist within ASTM, SAE, ISO, and automotive standards that include a controlled humidity cycle as part of a total test procedure. 

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