I check ASTM standards every few weeks for bibliographic reasons. Many of their standards - and there seem to be thousands - are issued in two editions, both SI and the vestigial 20th-century British system variously called WOMBAT or retro. The SI versions have the same serial number but with an M suffix. I checked some steel specs just now at astm.org<http://astm.org> and was surprised to find, in the first list, most standards listed only with the M suffix, perhaps because the US steel industry is moribund. ASTM now calls itself "ASTM International” and benefits from international input in its consensus.
On Jan 7, 2015, at 5:22 PM, mechtly, eugene a <mech...@illinois.edu<mailto:mech...@illinois.edu>> wrote: Martin, I have no idea which of the ASTM standards are also ANSI standards, and might also be recognized by the ISO. It would be useful if there were an index of these various standards to facilitate searching by subject. At least, I believe it is safe to say that increasing numbers of these global standards are being written in SI Units of Measurement. Gene Mechtly. On Jan 7, 2015, at 12:48 PM, Martin Vlietstra <vliets...@btinternet.com<mailto:vliets...@btinternet.com>> wrote: Hi Gene Part of the problem is that ISO recognises ANSI, not ASTM as the official US member. For the record, ISO, BSI and DIN are not Government bodies, they are private organisations, but have a status within the field of standards similar to that of the Olympic movement in sport. In much the same way the IOC only recognises one body representing the US. The Metre Convention organisations are totally different, they are inter-government bodies and senior members have diplomatic (or quasi-diplomatic) status in France (unless they are French citizens) in much the same way that senior members of the UN staff have diplomatic or quasi-diplomatic status in New York (unless they are US citizens) Thus, if any ASTMS standards are to be adopted by ISO, ASTMS needs to work with ANSI (or get ANSI to sponsor them). From: owner-u...@colostate.edu<mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu> [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of mechtly, eugene a Sent: 07 January 2015 15:50 To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:54562] Re: Units and ASTM Martin, Standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM-International) have historically been written by groups in the private sectors of the USA, which are interested in a particular material or subject. Membership and participation in ASTM have become more global in recent years. For many years in the past, ASTM has complained that countries in Europe are reluctant to adopt ASTM Standards, preferring instead to adopt similar standards which were developed in Europe by *official* organizations, sponsored by government(s) e.g. DIN, ISO. Access to hundreds of documents on both sides of the Atlantic, would be necessary to assess the current balance of adoptions of standards developed by ASTM vs standards developed in Europe. Are they beginning to converge to more universal global standards? Who knows! Gene Mechtly. On Jan 6, 2015, at 1:32 PM, Martin Vlietstra <vliets...@btinternet.com<mailto:vliets...@btinternet.com>> wrote: Are many ASTM standards are adopted by ISO? I know that many, if not most ISO standards started life as a national standard. From: owner-u...@colostate.edu<mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu> [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of mechtly, eugene a Sent: 06 January 2015 19:15 To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:54559] Re: Units and ASTM Stan, The practice that I notice most in “Standardization News (SN)” is the *almost total absence* of units of measurement of any kind, absence of SI Units and absence of units from outside the SI as well, except in some of the paid adverting in SN which does seems to favor metric units. In the hundreds of ASTM Standards, themselves, it may be true that they “adhere best to the metric units commitment", but that is not evident is SN. Even still as a member of ASTM-Committee 43 on SI, I do continue to receive complimentary copies of SN, but, unfortunately, we do not have unrestricted access to the ASTM library of standards to observe the extent of adoption of SI. What is your count of standards in SI vs. those written outside the SI? Gene Mechtly. On Jan 6, 2015, at 9:14 AM, Stanislav Jakuba <jakub...@gmail.com<mailto:jakub...@gmail.com>> wrote: ASTM International, known until 2001 as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), is an international standards organization<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standards_organization> that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_standard> for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_(economics)>. The organization is headquarters is in West Conshohocken, PA<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Conshohocken,_Pennsylvania>. ASTM, founded in 1898 as the American Section of the International Association for Testing and Materials, predates other standards organizations such as BSI<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Standards> (1901), DIN<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsches_Institut_f%C3%BCr_Normung> (1917), ANSI<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_National_Standards_Institute> (1918) and AFNOR<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_Fran%C3%A7aise_de_Normalisation> (1926). That much Wikipedia. For us it is important to know that ASTM is the U.S. standards developing organization (unlike ANSI) and one of the largest, and that it adheres best to the metric units commitment. The reason that I write about it now is that I noticed a deviation from their policy of "metric units first." For a while the flagship publication, the Standardization News, published data with units in the reversed order. Contacting ASTM, I was informed that it was a mistake and that "we will do that, except for quotations or a special case (I think sieves is one)." A good news for 2015. Stan Jakuba
