In the United States, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) is the organization that has assumed the responsibility for the “development of standards on characterization and performance of materials, product systems and services, and the promotion of related knowledges.” The testing specifications of other organizations (such as the military in their ‘‘Mil-Specs’’) often parallel those specified by ASTM. ASTM operates as a source of voluntary consensus standards. Most other countries (or groups of countries) have similar organizations, and there is considerable interaction and interchange between these groups from the various countries. For example, many of the standards adopted by European and Asian groups find their basis in ASTM, and vice versa. This is accomplished through coordinating committees from the various countries that meet frequently. While the standards of most of these countries could be cited in this chapter, the authors will rely almost exclusively on ASTM since these are the standards with which they are most familiar. The interested reader can usually find comparable standards in his or her own country. ASTM publishes an Annual Book of Standards that updates the test methods and other details on a yearly basis. The changes are seldom revolutionary but rather, evolutionary. New standards do appear, however, and all standards are reviewed periodically, at which time they may be eliminated or updated. The responsibility for developing new standards, revising existing standards, and approving standards for publication falls on ASTM volunteer committees. Of the more than 30,000 members of ASTM, nearly two-thirds serve on such committees. This is no small task. The 1990 Annual Book of Standards was composed of 68 volumes, divided among 16 sections. It is not uncommon for these volumes to be more than 500 pages long and some have nearly twice this many pages. The D-14 committee has the primary responsibility for adhesives. Volume 15.06 is the ASTM publication that covers most adhesive standards. Including indexes and the like, it has some 485 pages covering 116 standards.
To this point we have used the term standard in a very general sense. ASTM has a hierarchy of types of communications of this general nature, which are defined as follows:
1. Classifications are a systematic arrangement or division of materials, products, systems, or services into groups based on similar characteristics (origin, properties, composition, etc.) in which the instructions or options do not recommend specific courses of action.
2. Guides provide a series of options or instructions but do not recommend a specific course of action. The purpose here is to offer guidance based on a consensus but not to establish fixed procedures.
3. Practices outline definitive procedures for conducting specific operations or functions, that do not produce specific test results (comparative test methods).
4. Specifications are a precise statement of a set of requirements to be satisfied by a material, system, service, and so on, and the procedures to be used to determine if the requirements are satisfied.
5. Terminology is a document that helps standardize the terminology, their definitions, descriptions, symbols, abbreviations, acronyms, and so on. The relevant example here is D-907, Standard Terminology of Adhesives, which was originally published in 1947 and most recently approved by D-14 in 1990. This provides definitions for several hundred terms in common use in adhesive science and technology. Despite this very worthy effort, the use of many terms is somewhat ambiguous and a reader/researcher must seek to determine a word’s exact meaning by looking at the context in which it is used.
6. Test methods are definitive procedures for identification, measurement, and/or evaluation of qualities, characteristics, or properties of materials, products, systems, or services. These will, in general, produce test results.