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Nov 03, 2020
The September/October print edition of Standardization News included a collection of member profiles. However, realizing we could easily fill an entire print edition with interesting member stories and achievements, the editors decided to continue this section here on SN Online. With this in mind, we present a second collection of profiles, honoring ASTM International's greatest asset: Our members.
Professionally, I have a direct connection with standards related to woven wire cloth, as it is the product that our family business, Unique Wire Weaving Company, has been manufacturing since 1946. As a mechanical engineer, the technical aspects of standards work is certainly gratifying.
I attended my first ASTM meeting in October 1997 as the representative of the American Wire Cloth Institute and petitioned the E29 committee to replace and obsolete standard with a new specification for industrial woven wire cloth (E2016).
With a great group of people on the committee, I have rarely missed a meeting since joining ASTM in 1999. While we work professionally together at our meetings, I also very much enjoy socializing with the group, and I am fortunate to have become good friends with many of them over the years.
Of the standards I have worked on, perhaps most technically challenging was the revision of the specification for woven wire test sieve cloth and test sieves (E11), which involved updating the old tolerance premise to one that was more technically robust. Developing new standards that have been truly needed by the wire cloth industry (for example, E2814) has been very rewarding, and the ASTM process assures the publication of the highest quality documents, of which all can be proud.
READ MORE: The People Behind Standards
The highlight of my time at ASTM was receiving the Award of Merit in 2018. And I must thank my wife Cheryl for putting up with me working on the laptop so many evenings as we sit trying to “relax.”
After moonlighting as a forensic engineer during 40 years in the defense industry, I began a full-time occupation as a forensic engineer. A forensic investigator needs to be fully up to date with information on the equipment or process he is investigating. This requirement leads one down many paths.
I served as the point person (technical contact) for generating the tutorial and reference document that became the guide for forensic engineering expert reports (E3176). Informational but not prescriptive, the guide offers suggestions and examples to help writers and critics.
The acceptance of the final document and the work to resolve multiple ballot negatives toward actual publication of the E3176 guide was an intense and prolonged effort, and the standard was published in May 2020. Now, when forensic engineers submit their findings as technical reports, there is finally some guidance on how to write a good report for the purpose.
Membership in ASTM International is not a huge investment in return for being able to learn new things and stay in the loop of what’s going on in my field. And while standards work also means both reviewing and contributing to standards, even when it takes more time than you might anticipate, it’s part of what I do. That includes some late-night hours. I continue to do so because “I just can’t not participate.”
I got involved in ASTM International many years ago to learn about the field of tribology. It was relatively new in the 1960s, and my company asked me to learn about it. It was immediately apparent that testing was a big part of tribology and that the experts on testing were in ASTM. I joined ASTM to get educated, and I soon learned that standard tests are key to evaluating materials for tribological applications.
I have been involved with drafting many of the standards for the wear and erosion committee (G02), and the one that still occupies a significant spot in all of our meetings is the dry-sand rubber wheel abrasion test (G65). It is the most used tribology test based on literature citations, but it is fraught with problems relating to our changing world. For example, the standard test uses a special sand from a single source in the United States. It is not inexpensive to have 50-pound bags of sand shipped all over the world from Illinois.
The wear and erosion committee has developed another abrasion test that has no supply problems. The test method for measuring abrasion resistance of materials by abrasive loop contact (G174) uses abrasive tape rather than sand as the abradant. I have been on a crusade for the last 20 years to urge people to adopt this standard. Some have, most have not.
ASTM committee activities have been the most important part of my engineering career. They painlessly supply me with continuing education and give me access to world experts in my field, and this helps me do my job better.
I got involved with ASTM International through a group from the National Property Management Association, which started developing related standards in 1999. The advantages of working with ASTM quickly became apparent: Producing standards was not a core competency of the group, but it certainly was a core competency of ASTM.
With the support and encouragement of ASTM staff, we were the first committee to adopt electronic communications as our standard way of working. We were able to produce and approve three standards within 12 months of forming the E53 committee. The first work group I led in E53 developed our first terminology standard. I've found terminology to be of crucial importance throughout my career and in all aspects of standards development.
In 2011, an ISO initiative was brought to our attention. This initiative sought to develop an ISO management system standard for asset management. Due to our early involvement and the support of ASTM, our committee led and continues to host the U.S. Technical Advisory Group representing the United States in the development of the ISO 55000 series of standards published in 2014. Lyle Hesterman was the initial TAGs Chair and I had the honor of serving as “head of delegation,” an honor and privilege that was a career-developing and career-defining role. Through this effort, ASTM had a major impact on the development of these important standards that continue to advance the management of assets in public and private organizations in the U.S. and around the world.
I've stayed involved over the past 20 years and plan to continue in the future. I was recently approved as chair for a new subcommittee on asset leadership in the E53 committee.
I am a nuclear zirconium metallurgist and have a consulting company I started after retiring from nuclear fuel manufacturing work in 2016 after 43 years in the industry.
Even before I finished my Ph.D. in 1973, I presented my thesis work at the ASTM International Zirconium Symposium in 1973. I liked the nuclear zirconium standards work of committee B10 as an ideal support for nuclear industry, combining up-to-date technology with safety and commercial licensing requirements. I have been active in the committee since the 1970s, and I was the B10 committee chair for 6 years in the 2000s and am the current chair of the symposium subcommittee (B10.93).
I have worked on several standards and am grateful to have received the Award of Merit in 2014. I am also chairman of the Kroll Zirconium Medal Selection international committee.
The committee has organized the Zirconium International Symposia for the last 50 years, and I’ve been involved since the 1990s. The symposia proceedings, which represent the state-of -the art literature on nuclear zirconium, are published as ASTM peer-reviewed STP [selected technical papers] books. Contributing authors are from industry, universities, research organizations, and regulators, and all experts cherish these books. I have all 18 on my shelf at home.
When the nuclear industry has an issue, everyone examines the peer-reviewed papers in past STPs for possible solutions or to identify contributing factors.
These symposia have been organized at sites all over the world. Eighteen STPs have been published, and the 19th will be published in 2021. The 20th zirconium symposium is being planned for June 2022 in Ottawa, Canada. Each symposium requires five years from planning to STP publication.
I am the Aviation Technical Manager for the UK MoD, who are sponsors of the UK Defence Standard 91-091 Jet Fuel specification, which is one of the major jet fuel specifications used worldwide.
I am the only ASTM International voting member at the UK Ministry of Defence. So it is important to stay abreast of developments in the commercial world; to know and understand the changes being proposed to ASTM standards; and to actively participate in the balloting process. As sponsors of Def Stan 91-091, it is important that we align with the specification for airline turbine fuels (D1655) as much as possible, to make ensuring global fuel quality easier to achieve. This also results in a more streamlined and efficient operation for refineries, producers, and suppliers.
Involvement with ASTM allows me to maintain subject matter expertise but also provides me the opportunity to enhance knowledge. ASTM meeting attendance also provides a useful opportunity for building a network of specialist contacts and provides an environment for cohesive team effort in developing standards. This serves the interests of the aviation community and puts safety and fit for purpose at the center of the process.
I became involved in ASTM in the 1980s following work in the 1970s by the United States Pony Clubs (USPC) board of directors.
The USPC board had established a task group to search for a source of improved riding helmets because they were receiving reports of increasing numbers of serious head injuries to members. President Rufus Wesson personally contacted manufacturers all over the world and collected samples to study. When he died unexpectedly, his widow, knowing that I was confined to my house as the result of a foxhunting accident, asked that I continue his project.
In 1979, the U.S. Polo Federation completed a new standard at Wayne State University and gave us permission to use any part of it. We also had permission to use parts of the NOCSAE football standard as a model. It fell to me to do the editing, and I found a nearby testing facility which agreed to do testing to the resulting USPC Standard.
I soon learned that we needed a more formal procedure and more research, which led me to ASTM. I was thrilled to find that they would be willing to host an exploratory meeting for us.
The first Equestrian Helmet meeting of the sports equipment, playing surfaces, and facilities committee (F08) was held in August 1984, and I was elected chair. Many of the same people from the January 1979 USPC meeting attended and after four years of meetings, the Specification For Protective Headgear Used in Horse Sports and Horseback Riding (F1163) was completed, thanks to the outstanding support of testing engineers, component manufacturers, standards editors, consumer safety activists, doctors, lawyers, biokineticists, equestrians from various disciplines and activities, and with guidance from ASTM and Safety Equipment Institute support staff.
The standard became internationally recognized and was unique at the time for its partnership with SEI, which provided the testing certification and quality control components oversight.
I am still active as an equestrian instructor, judge, coach, competition organizer, safety committee member, and dedicated volunteer for USPC in Western New York. I retired from my “real” job as Ontario County STOP-DWI Coordinator in 2014, which I held for 30 years at the same time I was working on F1163. Each of these activities contributed to the other in unexpected ways, but what they had in common was the difficulty in getting them accepted by end users.
I’m a huge fan of ASTM and the staff I have dealt with over for almost 40 years.
I have enjoyed being part of ASTM because of the opportunity to be involved in the development of standards for our industry and to able to meet and work with so many dedicated people. It has been exciting to acquire a better understanding of what goes into developing standards and to be part of the team that does so.
Over the years I have been involved in the development of many standards in a number of concrete pipe subcommittees: reinforced sewer and culvert pipe (C13.02); determining the effects of biogenic sulfuric acid on concrete pipe and structures (C13.03); manholes and specials (C13.06); acceptance specifications and precast concrete structures (C13.07); and correlation and editorial (C13.10). This year, as chair of C13.03, I oversaw the development of two new standards, and a third has just been sent out for concurrent ballot. To me, this is all very exciting and rewarding.
Highlights for me have been receiving the Spangler and Heger Awards, and the Award of Merit, which I was thrilled to receive in 2019. I have been very fortunate to be honored in this way just for doing something that I absolutely enjoy.
I joined the magnetic properties committee for the same reason many become involved with ASTM International: to add my input to standards that govern the materials and practices in our industry. What has happened over the past 10 years is that I have learned much more than I brought to the table, and I wish I had joined ASTM 20 years earlier.
During my tenure with ASTM, I’ve been involved in activities that have proven to be very rewarding. I had the pleasure of being the primary author of the specification for thin-gauge nonoriented electrical steel fully processed types (A1086), a new standard for very thin lamination materials now seeing ever-greater use in advanced motors and generators.
I was also invited to chair the subcommittee on material specifications (A06.02) and the technical advisory group (TAG) to the U.S. national committee. Through these positions, I’ve been able to work closely with our authors on all of our new standards as well as current revisions to our material specifications to include SI (metric) units as the primary measurement system. I have also represented the United States at meetings of our international colleagues in the International Electrotechnical Commission. Finally, I was humbled and honored to have received the Award of Merit.
The honors and accomplishments that have come my way pale in comparison to the pleasure of being able to work with some of the smartest and most gracious people in the field of magnetic materials and testing, as well as with the management of ASTM. They’ve welcomed my wife and I into this small but vital community and have provided guidance and friendship as I undertook these many activities. Being involved with the committee on magnetic properties has been an important part of my professional life, and I wish to thank all of my colleagues for making this a very special time. ■
January / February 2008
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