Rationale

At a recent ISO/TC 164/SC 1 (Mechanical testing of metals/Uniaxial testing) meeting a Foil Testing standard was proposed and a work item was initiated. The US opposed this action because an international standard already exists, i.e. ASTM E345. The World Trade Organization Principles for Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations states “5. Coherence - In order to avoid the development of conflicting international standards, it is important that international standardizing bodies avoid duplication of, or overlap with, the work of other international standardizing bodies. In this respect, cooperation and coordination with other relevant international bodies is essential. After pointing this principle out to the ISO committee, the ISO committee agreed to cease working on the project if ASTM would make changes to E345 to make it more usable throughout the world and that these changes be well underway by September 2024. The items are proposed not only to make the standard more usable worldwide, but also to improve the standard. The proposed changes are broken into several ballot items. The entire standard is included for context with all the proposed changes. Only this paragraph of the rationale changes with each ballot item. This proposed change makes the speed of testing more specific when outside guidance is not given. In this work item only changes to sections 7.4 through 7.4.2.2 and the deletion of old 7.4.1 through 7.4.4 are being balloted.