Articles and Case Studies from ASTM International

By the Numbers

In a sense, metrology makes the world go around. It can quantify how long it takes the Earth to rotate, and the science of weights and measurements underpins everything from telling time to ensuring the fairness of international trade agreements. ...

Dec. 1, 2015 Adam Bender

A Smaller Footprint - Sustainable Processes for Manufacturing

Manufacturers working to adopt sustainable practices will find support from a new ASTM International guide. This standard (E2986, Guide for Evaluation of Environmental Aspects of Sustainability of Manufacturing Processes) will serve as a key ...

Oct. 27, 2015 Richard Wilhelm

Enhancing Your Role as a Standards Professional

This article draws on and adds to previous articles in this series. Taken together, these articles describe how standards professionals can enhance their role and value in corporate planning and better address CEO needs. But what knowledge, skills ...

Sep. 3, 2015 Jeffrey Strauss

Ensuring Water Quality in Africa

Water is essential for life, and “access to safe water is a fundamental human and, therefore, a basic human right.” With this statement and his address on World Water Day in 2001, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan put a ...

Aug. 28, 2015 Cicely Enright

Enhancing Your Role as a Standards Professional: Part 3: Maximizing the Value of Your Participation in Standards Development

A mindmap can help standards professionals communicate the complex connections of standards development, business benefits and the details of both: here’s what to consider. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of standards to ...

Jul. 13, 2015 Jeffrey Strauss

NTSB Investigates

An independent U.S. government agency uses everything at its disposal, including ASTM standards, to determine the causes of transportation and pipeline accidents. An airplane battery catches on fire. A gas pipeline explodes. A bridge collapses. ...

Jun. 25, 2015 Cicely Enright

Enhancing Your Role as a Standards Professional, Part 2: Maximizing Input into Strategic Planning

By providing input into roadmapping and scenario planning, you can make your technical committee work relevant to your company’s strategic plan. The first article in this series (“The Elevator Speech”) showed how to introduce the ...

May 7, 2015 Jeffrey Strauss

Building Safety Redefined

Buildings today can meet societal and personal needs like never before, and standards are part of the picture. Robert A. Ivy, CEO of the American Institute of Architects, explains. How do you think building safety will be redefined in this century? ...

Apr. 27, 2015

Enhancing Your Role as a Standards Professional - Part 1: The Elevator Speech

You know your participation in standards development is critical to your company, but does your company recognize this? Do you have the support and resources you need? Here’s how to develop a quick summary of what you do and what you need that ...

Mar. 5, 2015 Jeffrey Strauss

Infrastructure Maintenance - An Economic Opportunity

Public safety and the cost of doing business are deeply impacted when infrastructure is neglected. Here’s a look at the high cost of low maintenance and what can be done about it. A Bridge Too Far There are over 607,000 bridges in the United ...

Jan. 15, 2015 Jack Maxwell

Interview with Ronald Ebelhar, 2015 Chairman of the ASTM Board

Ron Ebelhar has provided leadership in civil engineering projects and ASTM technical committee work since the 1970s. This year, he brings his experience to his elected position as chairman of the ASTM board of directors. You have worked on dozens ...

Jan. 8, 2015

Going Small

There once was a time when science and engineering were considered not only good ways to make a living but maybe even “cool.” Today, with changes in aptitudes and priorities,1 young people are less inclined to consider the challenges of ...

Dec. 23, 2014 Alan Earls

Getting to Ballot

For the new year, your next committee activity and your newer members, we offer a few suggestions about a more efficient standards development process. The suggestions come from staff managers in ASTM’s Technical Committee Operations division, ...

Dec. 22, 2014 Cicely Enright

The Many Uses of Activated Carbon

Activated carbon is processed to have small, low-volume pores that increase the surface area available for adsorption. It has applications in the medical, environmental and energy realms, among others. Since 1962, ASTM Committee D28 on Activated ...

Dec. 22, 2014

A Promising Future for Butanol

With several beneficial attributes that make it a good blending agent in gasoline, butanol continues to hold promise for use as a biofuel. It is compatible with existing vehicles and refueling infrastructure. Low vapor pressure, high octane number ...

Dec. 22, 2014

Manufacturing: Poised for Growth

An Interview with Jay Timmons, President and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers According to the National Association of Manufacturers, an estimated 17.4 million jobs in the United States — about one in six private sector jobs ...

Nov. 14, 2014

Get the Lead Out - Standards Aid in RoHS Compliance

RoHS, the seminal European sustainability directive, and others like it challenge manufacturers to eliminate hazardous substances in their products. With RoHS compliance deadlines ongoing through at least the next five years, and more to come from ...

Nov. 6, 2014 Jack Maxwell

ASTM International Articles