[Image above] Credit: Andreas Levers; Flickr CC BY 2.0
[Editor’s note: This post comes to us from Michael Jenkins, PhD, PE, ASTM Committee C28 vice chair and mechanical engineering professor at Lyles College of Engineering at California State University.]
By Michael Jenkins
2016 marks the 30th year of the founding of ASTM Committee C28 on Advanced Ceramics. Committee C28 kicks off its anniversary year with a joint meeting with ACerS on Jan. 24, 2016, as part of the 40th Jubilee celebration of ICACC’16 in Daytona Beach, Fla.
To date, 50 ASTM standards in the forms of test methods, practices, guides, and terminology have been published under the jurisdiction of the Committee C28.
ASTM standards are high-quality, technically rigorous, full-consensus products. Many ASTM standards have been harmonized internationally as ISO standards (e.g., flexural strength, tensile strength, fracture toughness, Weibull parameters, and elastic constants for monolithics, as well as tensile, compression, and shear strength for composites).
Both ASTM and ISO standards have been used extensively in military, aviation, nuclear, and automotive applications for design, fabrication, quality control, and failure analysis. An important aspect of C28 standards is their importance as an enabling technology in support of advanced materials, which enable new technologies.
Some examples of tangible benefits are references to C28 standards in ASME Boiler and Pressure Code Section III – Rules for Construction of Nuclear Facility Components. In addition, C28 standards are referenced in CMH-17 Part C: Guidelines For Testing Ceramic Matrix Composites.
It is noteworthy that other ASTM standards—particularly specifications—reference and require C28 standards. Examples of this include ASTM F2094 Standard Specification for Silicon Nitride Bearing Balls and ASTM F2393 Standard Specification for High-Purity Dense Magnesia Partially Stabilized Zirconia (Mg-PSZ) for Surgical Implant Applications, both of which reference several C28 standards, including test methods for flexural strength, elastic constants, and hardness as well as reporting Weibull parameters.
If you would like to learn more about using ASTM C28 standards or would like to participate in developing ASTM C28 standards, click here or contact ASTM Committee C28 vice chair Michael Jenkins.