ISO and ASTM are the two main international standards bodies for aging and corrosion testing. Although they use different terminology and organize the documents in different ways, their structures are very similar, and most other standards organizations follow the standard guidelines used by ISO or ASTM.
In ASTM, four categories of standards are commonly used for aging and corrosion testing. Other standards bodies use a format similar to ASTM, but the terminology they use may be inaccurate.
• Standard Operating Standards specify how to expose samples to aging/corrosion, but not how long to test or how to evaluate samples after testing.
• Standard test methods specify the duration of the test and/or the manner in which specimens are evaluated before/after the test, but usually do not give pass/fail criteria for the evaluation.
• The standard specification specifies when to run the test and the pass/fail evaluation criteria.
• Standard guides provide extensive test methods and specifications for specific materials/products.
ASTM, ISO, and other standards typically include the following sections:
The scope of applicability briefly describes the topics covered in the standard to help the reader determine whether the standard applies. This is important when determining whether a test is to be used for quality control, validation, or correlation testing.
References include any documents specifically cited elsewhere in the standard.
A specification rationale or summary summarizes how the test will be performed.
Significance and use or introduction is a key part, informing readers of the limitations and applicability of the standard.
Any chemicals needed for the test are described in the Reagents or Test Solutions section
The "Instrumentation" section describes the hardware options for running the tests.
The Procedures/Evaluations section provides details on conducting the aging and corrosion tests and how the evaluations are performed.
Reporting, Precision and Bias details the information that needs to be included in the test report along with actual data demonstrating the repeatability and repeatability of the test method.
