Users or producers of valve and pump packing materials constructed from carbon yarn and used in shipbuilding are invited to develop standard tests and specifications for these products with ASTM Subcommittee F25.02 on Insulation Processes. Membership in ASTM International is not required.

In May, the subcommittee—which is part of ASTM Committee F25 on Ships and Marine Technology—initiated an Intermediate Carbon Yarns Task Group to explore the application of these products with experts in packing-materials manufacturing.

“The group will develop recommendations for either revising the current ASTM graphitic packing specification or preparing a new specification,” says subcommittee chairman Vito Florimonte, senior program manager, Marine Systems Department, BBN Technologies, Verizon Company, Arlington, Va. “The current ASTM specification, Standard Specification for Packing Material, Graphitic or Carbon Braided Yarn, is limited to high carbon purity carbon yarns.

“Intermediate carbon yarns of lower carbon purity produced by offshore vendors have resulted in packing products that may replace those packings made with the more expensive high purity carbon yarns,” he says. “For this reason, an alternative objective of this task group could be to develop a new specification for the lower carbon purity yarns if efforts to revise the existing specification prove to be impractical.”

Contact Florimonte to participate or comment (phone: 703/284-4608). The task group first meets during the Dec. 10-12 meetings of Committee F25 in Miami Beach. For meeting or membership details, contact Bob Morgan, director, ASTM Technical Committee Operations (phone: 610/832- 9732). //

Copyright 2002, ASTM