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63-476: ASTM International , formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials , is a standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical international standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems and services. Some 12,575 apply globally. The headquarters is in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania , about 5 mi (8.0 km) northwest of Philadelphia . It

126-417: A coordination problem : it emerges from situations in which all parties realize mutual gains, but only by making mutually consistent decisions. Examples : Private standards are developed by private entities such as companies, non-governmental organizations or private sector multi-stakeholder initiatives, also referred to as multistakeholder governance . Not all technical standards are created equal. In

189-519: A memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the United States Standards Strategy. The determinates of whether an NSB for a particular economy is a public or private sector body may include the historical and traditional roles that the private sector fills in public affairs in that economy or the development stage of that economy. A national standards body (NSB) generally refers to one standardization organization that

252-407: A company offers a product that is "compliant" with a standard. When an organization develops standards that may be used openly, it is common to have formal rules published regarding the process. This may include: Though it can be a tedious and lengthy process, formal standard setting is essential to developing new technologies. For example, since 1865, the telecommunications industry has depended on

315-434: A government (i.e., through legislation ), business contract, etc. The standardization process may be by edict or may involve the formal consensus of technical experts. The primary types of technical standards are: Technical standards are defined as: Technical standards may exist as: When a geographically defined community must solve a community-wide coordination problem , it can adopt an existing standard or produce

378-509: A hierarchical fashion in terms of national, regional and international scope; international organizations tend to have as members national organizations; and standards emerging at national level (such as BS 5750 ) can be adopted at regional levels (BS 5750 was adopted as EN 29000) and at international levels (BS 5750 was adopted as ISO 9000). Unless adopted by a government, standards carry no force in law. However, most jurisdictions have truth in advertising laws, and ambiguities can be reduced if

441-515: A large user base, doing some well established thing that between them is mutually incompatible. Establishing national/regional/international standards is one way of preventing or overcoming this problem. To further support this, the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee published the "Six Principles" guiding members in the development of international standards. The existence of a published standard does not imply that it

504-892: A large variety of independent international standards organizations such as the ASME , ASTM International , the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) , the IEEE , the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), SAE International , TAPPI , the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) develop and publish standards for a variety of international uses. In many such cases, these international standards organizations are not based on

567-412: A new one. The main geographic levels are: National/Regional/International standards is one way of overcoming technical barriers in inter-local or inter-regional commerce caused by differences among technical regulations and standards developed independently and separately by each local, local standards organisation , or local company. Technical barriers arise when different groups come together, each with

630-621: A number of papers in relation to the proliferation of private food safety standards in the agri-food industry, mostly driven by standard harmonization under the multistakeholder governance of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). With concerns around private standards and technical barriers to trade (TBT), and unable to adhere to the TBT Committee's Six Principles for the development of international standards because private standards are non-consensus,

693-481: A particular country, while others have been built from scratch by groups of experts who sit on various technical committees (TCs). These three organizations together comprise the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) alliance. ISO is composed of the national standards bodies (NSBs), one per member economy. The IEC is similarly composed of national committees, one per member economy. In some cases,

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756-611: A permanent agency of the United Nations , in which governments are the primary members, although other organizations (such as non-governmental organizations and individual companies) can also hold a form of direct membership status in the ITU as well. Another example of a treaty-based international standards organization with government membership is the Codex Alimentarius Commission . In addition to these,

819-408: A product or process is safe for humans, animals, and the environment. The subject of their work can be narrow or broad. Another area of interest is in defining how the behavior and performance of products is measured and described in data sheets. Overlapping or competing standards bodies tend to cooperate purposefully, by seeking to define boundaries between the scope of their work, and by operating in

882-1177: A proposal to form a new global standards body. In October 1946, ISA and UNSCC delegates from 25 countries met in London and agreed to join forces to create the new International Organization for Standardization ; the new organization officially began operations in February ;1947. Standards organizations can be classified by their role, position, and the extent of their influence on the local, national, regional, and global standardization arena. By geographic designation, there are international, regional, and national standards bodies (the latter often referred to as NSBs). By technology or industry designation, there are standards developing organizations (SDOs) and also standards setting organizations (SSOs) also known as consortia. Standards organizations may be governmental, quasi-governmental or non-governmental entities. Quasi- and non-governmental standards organizations are often non-profit organizations. Broadly, an international standards organization develops international standards (this does not necessarily restrict

945-562: A single international standard ; ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment), ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety), ISO 27001 (information security) and ISO 22301 (business continuity). Another example of a sector working with a single international standard is ISO 13485 (medical devices), which is adopted by the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF). In 2020, Fairtrade International , and in 2021, Programme for

1008-653: A subsidiary of ASTM International. SEI is an accredited third-party certification organization that certifies various types of PPE to industry consensus standards. On June 9, 2022, it was announced that the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and ASTM International agreed to extend and expand a Technical Cooperation Agreement from 2019. Membership in the organization is open to anyone interested in its activities. Standards are developed within committees, and new committees are formed as needed, upon request of interested members. Membership in most committees

1071-477: A substantial waiting-list of producers seeking organizational memberships on the more popular committees. Members can participate without a formal vote and their input will be fully considered. As of 2015, ASTM has more than 30,000 members, including over 1,150 organizational members, from more than 140 countries. The members serve on one or more of 140+ ASTM Technical Committees. ASTM International has several awards for contributions to standards authorship, including

1134-410: A technological baseline for future research and product development. Formal standard setting through standards organizations has numerous benefits for consumers including increased innovation, multiple market participants, reduced production costs, and the efficiency effects of product interchangeability. To support the standard development process, ISO published Good Standardization Practices (GSP) and

1197-496: A university may have copies of technical standards on hand. Major libraries in large cities may also have access to many technical standards. Some users of standards mistakenly assume that all standards are in the public domain . This assumption is correct only for standards produced by the central governments whose publications are not amenable to copyright or to organizations that issue their standard under an open license. Any standards produced by non-governmental entities remain

1260-567: Is voluntary and is initiated by the member's request, not by appointment or invitation. Members are classified as users, producers, consumers, and "general interest". The latter includes academics and consultants. Users include industry users, who may be producers in the context of other technical commodities, and end-users such as consumers. To meet the requirements of antitrust laws, producers must constitute less than 50% of every committee or subcommittee, and votes are limited to one per producer company. Because of these restrictions, there can be

1323-404: Is always useful or correct. For example, if an item complies with a certain standard, there is not necessarily assurance that it is fit for any particular use. The people who use the item or service (engineers, trade unions, etc.) or specify it (building codes, government, industry, etc.) have the responsibility to consider the available standards, specify the correct one, enforce compliance, and use

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1386-599: Is an organization whose primary function is developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise contributing to the usefulness of technical standards to those who employ them. Such an organization works to create uniformity across producers, consumers, government agencies, and other relevant parties regarding terminology, product specifications (e.g. size, including units of measure), protocols, and more. Its goals could include ensuring that Company A's external hard drive works on Company B's computer, an individual's blood pressure measures

1449-608: Is that country's member of the ISO . A standards developing organization (SDO) is one of the thousands of industry- or sector-based standards organizations that develop and publish industry specific standards. Some economies feature only an NSB with no other SDOs. Large economies like the United States and Japan have several hundred SDOs, many of which are coordinated by the central NSBs of each country (ANSI and JISC in this case). In some cases, international industry-based SDOs such as

1512-646: Is usually a formal document that establishes uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes, and practices. In contrast, a custom, convention, company product, corporate standard, and so forth that becomes generally accepted and dominant is often called a de facto standard. A technical standard may be developed privately or unilaterally, for example by a corporation, regulatory body, military, etc. Standards can also be developed by groups such as trade unions and trade associations. Standards organizations often have more diverse input and usually develop voluntary standards: these might become mandatory if adopted by

1575-797: The ASTM International Award of Merit (the organization's highest award) ASTM International is classified by the United States Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. ASTM International has no role in requiring or enforcing compliance with its standards. The standards may become mandatory when referenced by an external contract, corporation, or government. In the United States, ASTM standards have been adopted, by incorporation or by reference, in many federal, state, and municipal government regulations. The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act , passed in 1995, requires

1638-864: The African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), the Arabic industrial development and mining organization (AIDMO), and others. In the European Union, only standards created by CEN, CENELEC, and ETSI are recognized as European standards (according to Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 ), and member states are required to notify the European Commission and each other about all the draft technical regulations concerning ICT products and services before they are adopted in national law. These rules were laid down in Directive 98/34/EC with

1701-719: The CIE , the IEEE and the Audio Engineering Society (AES) may have direct liaisons with international standards organizations, having input to international standards without going through a national standards body. SDOs are differentiated from standards setting organizations (SSOs) in that SDOs may be accredited to develop standards using open and transparent processes. Developers of technical standards are generally concerned with interface standards , which detail how products interconnect with each other, and safety standards , which established characteristics ensure that

1764-688: The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). The law makes the ASTM F963 standard a mandatory requirement for toys while the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) studies the standard's effectiveness and issues final consumer guidelines for toy safety. Standards organization A standards organization , standards body , standards developing organization ( SDO ), or standards setting organization ( SSO )

1827-707: The GCC Standardization Organization (GSO) for Arab States of the Persian Gulf . In general, each country or economy has a single recognized national standards body (NSB). A national standards body is likely the sole member from that economy in ISO; ISO currently has 161 members. National standards bodies usually do not prepare the technical content of standards, which instead is developed by national technical societies. NSBs may be either public or private sector organizations, or combinations of

1890-544: The Hayes command set developed by Hayes , Apple 's TrueType font design and the PCL protocol used by Hewlett-Packard in the computer printers they produced. Normally, the term standards organization is not used to refer to the individual parties participating within the standards developing organization in the capacity of founders, benefactors , stakeholders , members or contributors, who themselves may function as or lead

1953-516: The ITU to establish the telecommunications standards that have been adopted worldwide. The ITU has created numerous telecommunications standards including telegraph specifications, allocation of telephone numbers, interference protection, and protocols for a variety of communications technologies. The standards that are created through standards organizations lead to improved product quality, ensured interoperability of competitors' products, and they provide

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2016-707: The OpenOffice.org , an Apache Software Foundation -sponsored international community of volunteers working on an open-standard software that aims to compete with Microsoft Office , and two commercial groups competing fiercely with each other to develop an industry-wide standard for high-density optical storage . Another example is the Global Food Safety Initiative where members of the Consumer Goods Forum define benchmarking requirements for harmonization and recognize scheme owners using private standards for food safety . Technical standard It

2079-571: The WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee published the "Six Principles" guiding members in the development of international standards. Some standards – such as the SIF Specification in K12 education – are managed by a non-profit organizations composed of public entities and private entities working in cooperation that then publish the standards under an open license at no charge and requiring no registration. A technical library at

2142-583: The WTO does not rule out the possibility that the actions of private standard-setting bodies may be subject to WTO law. BSI Group compared private food safety standards with "plugs and sockets", explaining the food sector is full of "confusion and complexity". Also, "the multiplicity of standards and assurance schemes has created a fragmented and inefficient supply chain structure imposing unnecessary costs on businesses that have no choice but to pass on to consumers". BSI provide examples of other sectors working with

2205-726: The World Health Organization Guidelines in health, or ITU Recommendations in ICT and being publicly funded, are freely available for consideration and use worldwide. In 1904, Crompton represented Britain at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis , Missouri , as part of a delegation by the Institute of Electrical Engineers . He presented a paper on standardization, which

2268-462: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), whose standards for HTML , CSS , and XML are used universally. There are also community-driven associations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a worldwide network of volunteers who collaborate to set standards for internet protocols. Some industry-driven standards development efforts don't even have a formal organizational structure. They are projects funded by large corporations. Among them are

2331-406: The intellectual property of their developers (unless specifically designed otherwise) and are protected, just like any other publications , by copyright laws and international treaties . However, the intellectual property extends only to the standard itself and not to its use. For instance if a company sells a device that is compliant with a given standard, it is not liable for further payment to

2394-829: The ARINC Standards. Regional standards bodies also exist, such as the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) in Europe, the Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC), the Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT),

2457-468: The Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) issued position statements defending their use of private standards in response to reports from The Institute for Multi-Stakeholder Initiative Integrity (MSI Integrity) and Greenpeace. Private standards typically require a financial contribution in terms of an annual fee from the organizations who adopt the standard. Corporations are encouraged to join

2520-443: The board of governance of the standard owner which enables reciprocity. Meaning corporations have permission to exert influence over the requirements in the standard, and in return the same corporations promote the standards in their supply chains which generates revenue and profit for the standard owner. Financial incentives with private standards can result in a perverse incentive , where some private standards are created solely with

2583-507: The body's first President. The International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA) was founded in 1926 with a broader remit to enhance international cooperation for all technical standards and specifications. The body was suspended in 1942 during World War II . After the war, ISA was approached by the recently formed United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) with

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2646-515: The contributions of other engineers, accomplished a modest amount of industry standardization; some companies' in-house standards also began to spread more widely within their industries. Joseph Whitworth 's screw thread measurements were adopted as the first (unofficial) national standard by companies around Britain in 1841. It came to be known as the British Standard Whitworth , and was widely adopted in other countries. By

2709-835: The country, and enabled the markets to act more rationally and efficiently, with an increased level of cooperation. After the First World War , similar national bodies were established in other countries. The Deutsches Institut für Normung was set up in Germany in 1917, followed by its counterparts, the American National Standard Institute and the French Commission Permanente de Standardisation , both in 1918. Several international organizations create international standards , such as Codex Alimentarius in food,

2772-461: The development of a technical standard, private standards adopt a non-consensus process in comparison to voluntary consensus standards. This is explained in the paper International standards and private standards . The International Trade Centre published a literature review series with technical papers on the impacts of private standards and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published

2835-515: The end of the 19th century differences in standards between companies was making trade increasingly difficult and strained. For instance, in 1895 an iron and steel dealer recorded his displeasure in The Times : "Architects and engineers generally specify such unnecessarily diverse types of sectional material or given work that anything like economical and continuous manufacture becomes impossible. In this country no two professional men are agreed upon

2898-474: The federal government to use privately developed consensus standards whenever possible. The Act reflects what had long been recommended as best practice within the federal government. Other governments have also referenced ASTM standards. Corporations doing international business may choose to reference an ASTM standard. All toys sold in the United States must meet the safety requirements of ASTM F963, Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety, as part of

2961-480: The foreword with a statement like the following: "Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights". If the standards organization is aware that parts of a given standard fall under patent protection, it will often require the patent holder to agree to Reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing before including it in

3024-657: The goal of providing transparency and control with regard to technical regulations. Sub-regional standards organizations also exist such as the MERCOSUR Standardization Association (AMN), the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), and the ASEAN Consultative Committee for Standards and Quality (ACCSQ), EAC East Africa Standards Committee www.eac-quality.net , and

3087-401: The inability of their developers to keep abreast with the technological innovation. As a result, a new class of standards setters appeared on the standardization arena: the industry consortia or standards setting organizations (SSOs), which are also referred to as private standards . Despite having limited financial resources, some of them enjoy truly international acceptance. One example is

3150-411: The item correctly. Validation of suitability is necessary. Standards often get reviewed, revised and updated on a regular basis. It is critical that the most current version of a published standard be used or referenced. The originator or standard writing body often has the current versions listed on its web site. In social sciences , including economics , a standard is useful if it is a solution to

3213-469: The national committee to the IEC of an economy may also be the ISO member from that country or economy. ISO and IEC are private international organizations that are not established by any international treaty. Their members may be non-governmental organizations or governmental agencies, as selected by ISO and IEC (which are privately established organizations). The ITU is a treaty-based organization established as

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3276-472: The principle of one member per country. Rather, membership in such organizations is open to those interested in joining and willing to agree to the organization's by-laws – having either organizational/corporate or individual technical experts as members. The Airlines Electronic Engineering Committee (AEEC) was formed in 1949 to prepare avionics system engineering standards with other aviation organizations RTCA, EUROCAE, and ICAO. The standards are widely known as

3339-790: The purpose of safety or for consumer protection act from deceitful practices. The term formal standard refers specifically to a specification that has been approved by a standards setting organization. The term de jure standard refers to a standard mandated by legal requirements or refers generally to any formal standard. In contrast, the term de facto standard refers to a specification (or protocol or technology) that has achieved widespread use and acceptance – often without being approved by any standards organization (or receiving such approval only after it already has achieved widespread use). Examples of de facto standards that were not approved by any standards organizations (or at least not approved until after they were in widespread de facto use) include

3402-448: The same with Company C's sphygmomanometer as it does with Company D's, or that all shirts that should not be ironed have the same icon (a clothes iron crossed out with an X) on the label. Most standards are voluntary in the sense that they are offered for adoption by people or industry without being mandated in law. Some standards become mandatory when they are adopted by regulators as legal requirements in particular domains, often for

3465-610: The size and weight of a girder to employ for given work". The Engineering Standards Committee was established in London in 1901 as the world's first national standards body. It subsequently extended its standardization work and became the British Engineering Standards Association in 1918, adopting the name British Standards Institution in 1931 after receiving its Royal Charter in 1929. The national standards were adopted universally throughout

3528-454: The standard. Such an agreement is regarded as a legally binding contract, as in the 2012 case Microsoft v. Motorola . The ever-quickening pace of technology evolution is now more than ever affecting the way new standards are proposed, developed and implemented. Since traditional, widely respected standards organizations tend to operate at a slower pace than technology evolves, many standards they develop are becoming less relevant because of

3591-455: The standards organization except in the special case when the organization holds patent rights or some other ownership of the intellectual property described in the standard. It is, however, liable for any patent infringement by its implementation, just as with any other implementation of technology. The standards organizations give no guarantees that patents relevant to a given standard have been identified. ISO standards draw attention to this in

3654-510: The standards organizations. The implementation of standards in industry and commerce became highly important with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the need for high-precision machine tools and interchangeable parts . Henry Maudslay developed the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe in 1800, which allowed for the standardization of screw thread sizes for the first time. Maudslay's work, as well as

3717-554: The two. For example, the Standards Council of Canada is a Canadian Crown Corporation , Dirección General de Normas is a governmental agency within the Mexican Ministry of Economy, and ANSI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit U.S. organization with members from both the private and public sectors. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U.S. government's standards agency, cooperates with ANSI under

3780-1102: The use of other published standards internationally). There are many international standards organizations. The three largest and most well-established such organizations are the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which have each existed for more than 50 years (founded in 1947, 1906, and 1865, respectively) and are all based in Geneva , Switzerland . They have established tens of thousands of standards covering almost every conceivable topic. Many of these are then adopted worldwide replacing various incompatible "homegrown" standards. Many of these standards are naturally evolved from those designed in-house within an industry, or by

3843-555: Was changed to "American Society for Testing And Materials". In 2001, ASTM officially changed its name to "ASTM International" and added the tagline "Standards Worldwide". In 2014, the tagline changed to "Helping our World Work better." Now, ASTM International has offices in Belgium, Canada, China, Peru, Washington, D.C., and West Conshohocken, PA. In April of 2016, the Safety Equipment Institute (SEI) became

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3906-570: Was founded in 1902 as the American Section of the International Association for Testing Materials. In 1898, a group of scientists and engineers , led by Charles Dudley , formed ASTM to address the frequent rail breaks affecting the fast-growing railroad industry. The group developed a standard for the steel used to fabricate rails. In 1961, originally called the "American Society for Testing Materials" it

3969-406: Was so well received that he was asked to look into the formation of a commission to oversee the process. By 1906, his work was complete and he drew up a permanent terms for the International Electrotechnical Commission . The body held its first meeting that year in London, with representatives from 14 countries. In honour of his contribution to electrical standardization, Lord Kelvin was elected as

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