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ASTM Committee D20 on Plastics was formed in 1937. D20 meets twice a year, in April and November, with about 180 members attending three days of technical meetings. The Committee, with a membership of approximately 740, currently has jurisdiction over 480 standards published in the Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Section 8 on Plastics. D20 has 23 technical subcommittees that maintain these standards. Information on this subcommittee structure and D20’s portfolio of approved standards and work items under development is available from the List of Subcommittees, Standards, and Work Items. These standards have and continue to play a preeminent role in all aspects important to the effective use of plastics, including specimen preparation, material specifications, and methodologies for mechanical, thermal, optical, and analytical testing. ACTIVITIES, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES The plastics industry is one of the largest manufacturing industries in the United States, accounting for more than $345 billion dollars in annual shipments. The industry directly employs more than 1.3 million people. Plastics play an indispensable role in a wide variety of markets, ranging from packaging and building/construction to transportation; consumer, and institutional products; furniture and furnishings; electrical/electronic components; adhesives, inks, coatings, and others. The technical subcommittees of D20 collectively encompass four primary areas: test methods, materials, products, and special interest. The test method development subcommittees work on the mechanical, thermal, optical, permanence and durability, and analytical properties of plastics. The materials subcommittees cover numerous types of plastics used by diverse industries, including cellular, olefin and reinforced plastics, thermoplastic and thermosetting materials, and film and sheeting. Product subcommittees address plastic building products (i.e., plastic lumber and vinyl siding) as well as recycled plastics and the new area of environmentally degradable plastics and biobased products. Special interest subcommittees support the work of the technical subcommittees through such groups as statistics and terminology. With such a large number of standards under their jurisdiction, D20 has a large array of standards activities ongoing at any given time. Work items are created to update and maintain existing standards, revise the precision and bias statements of test methods based on new interlaboratory studies and to develop new standards based on recent technology developments. A critical standard for the plastics industry is ASTM D 4000, Classification System for Specifying Plastic Materials. This standard provides a classification system for tabulating the properties of unfilled, filled, and reinforced plastic materials suitable for processing into parts. Many of the material specifications rely on the D 4000 callout classification system. D20 conducts a seminar on Monday evening at every meeting. The seminars provide an opportunity for technical experts (usually from outside the Committee membership) to address Committee D20. The intent of the seminar program is to provide a springboard for new standards development activities, to educate members on technical areas that relate to the plastics industry, and to challenge and stretch current thinking. Recent examples include workshops on nanotechnology, polychlorotrifluoroethylene (PCTFE) training and testing of micro parts. There is no fee to attend D20 seminars. Committee D20 sponsors two technical and professional training (TPT) courses. The first is Instrumental Analysis of Thermoplastic and Thermoset Polymers, which details basic principles, procedures, and equipment emphasizing practical applications, precision, pitfalls to avoid and appropriateness of instrumental analysis techniques such as spectroscopy, microscopy, thermal analysis, and chromatography. The second is Major Testing Techniques for Plastics: An Introduction, which includes basic principles, techniques, and equipment for the most commonly used physical and analytical tests on polymeric materials, including mechanical properties, chemical analysis, combustibility, instrumental analysis, electrical properties, and thermal aging. For more information about the D20 TPT courses, click here. Proficiency Testing Programs (PTP) programs are statistical quality assurance programs that enable laboratories to assess their performance in conducting test methods within their own laboratories when their data are compared against other laboratories that participate worldwide in the same program. There are four ASTM D20 sponsored Proficiency Testing Programs: Polyethylene Plastics Training Plastics: Mechanical Properties Testing, Multiplastics using centrally prepared specimens Polypropylene Mechanical Properties Testing, includes sample preparation Flammability Plastics Testing To learn more about ASTM PTP and crosscheck programs, click here.
Members can participate from anywhere because of ASTM’s customized web-based systems. The best way to contribute as a member is to (1) participate in task group activities that are of interest (both virtually and in person), and (2) vote on ballots and provide feedback and recommendations. To participate in standards activities, start by identifying Work Items of interest by reviewing the List of Subcommittees, Standards, and Work Items. Contact task group leaders for those areas of interest by reviewing the Work Item summary pages and securing contact information available through the on-line roster in the member area. To make the most of your voting and participation overall, be sure to stipulate which specific subcommittees you wish to participate in when you join so that you will receive notices of ballots that open within these groups. |