ASTM Testing Standards

ASTM International is recognized globally for developing and publishing voluntary standards. More than 12,000 ASTM standards are currently used worldwide to improve product quality, enhance health and safety, strengthen market access and trade, and build consumer confidence.

The ASTM defines a standard as “a document that has been developed and established within the consensus process of the Society and that meets the approval requirements of ASTM procedures and regulations.”

The ASTM publishes six types of standards:

• Test method
• Specification
• Classification
• Practice
• Guide
• Terminology

ASTM test methods are definitive procedures that produce a result. They usually include a detailed description of a procedure for determining a property or constituent of a material, an assembly of materials, or a product. These details include the apparatus, test specimen, procedure, and calculations needed for satisfactory results.

ASTM test methods represent a consensus about the best currently available procedure and are supported by experience and data from cooperative tests.

Numerous techniques can be used to determine trace or ultra-trace level impurities in substances or materials, an analysis that is especially useful to manufacturers of foods and beverages, polymers and plastics, adhesives and coatings, metals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and many other consumer and industrial products.

To help eliminate false readings due to contamination, choose specially purified chemicals and reagents for your sample preparation and analytical methods.

ASTM test methods exist for measuring the pH of water (D1293-18), soil (D4972-19), aqueous solutions (E70-19), petroleum products (D7946-19), leather (D2810-18), and many other substances.

The pH or acidity/alkalinity of a substance is an important factor in water quality, plant nutrient absorption, animal life, solubility, taste, and other characteristics of many products.

The pH is typically measured using a benchtop or portable meter, which must be calibrated regularly for reliable results.

The ASTM method for the UV-fluorescent determination of sulfur in hydrocarbons, fuels, and oils (D5453) is just one of multiple test procedures for measuring sulfur in natural gas and other petroleum products. Sulfur may also be measured when monitoring water and air quality.

Chloride ion measurements may be determined using titrations (D512-12) or with an electrochemistry meter fitted with a chlorine-specific ion-selective electrode.

Chloride is commonly measured in water, oil, gas, and other petroleum-based materials.

ASTM Committee D24 on Carbon Black (CB) was formed in 1956 and oversees methods for carbon blacks produced by furnaces and thermal decompositions. Other ASTM committees oversee ground carbonaceous materials (coke, coal, charcoals, graphite, etc.).

Methods for CB testing include ash content (D1506-15), CB content in olefin plastics (D1603-14), CB in feedstock oils (D7662-15), and approximately 40 more test standards.