ASTM International Committee C08 on Refractories will celebrate its 100th anniversary on March 26 during the March 25-26 C08 meetings to be held in St. Louis, Mo., in conjunction with the St. Louis section of the American Ceramic Society. For more information on the March meetings and celebration, contact Kathleen McClung, manager, ASTM (phone: 610-832-9717; kmcclung@astm.org). To register for the meetings, go to www.astm.org/C08-Refractories.
ASTM Committee C08 was founded in 1914 to develop standards for refractory materials, which are used to build various structures that are routinely subjected to high temperatures.
“I believe that C08 has made significant contributions to the refractories industry through its long history,” says Samuel Bonsall, research associate, advanced refractories division, Vesuvius, Bettsville, Ohio, and current chairman of C08. “The standards developed in this committee have defined what a refractory is, classified refractories by type and function, and defined key test methods to determine their suitability for a given application.”
In the early decades of C08’s existence, refractories would have been used to build the linings of fireplaces, stills and kilns, among other applications. The technological advances of the 20th century expanded the use of refractories to include the linings of nuclear reactors and the reentry heat shields for space shuttles.
“At C08’s beginning, which could also be equated to the beginning of the modern era of refractories, there were no standard methods available to evaluate supposedly equivalent materials,” says Leonard Krietz, vice president, research and development, Plibrico Co. LLC, Chicago, Ill., current chairman of C08’s awards subcommittee. “With the coming of standardized tests, manufacturers and consumers had the tools to benchmark a refractory’s performance to a test result. This enabled the means to evaluate and develop new materials in the lab for improved performance in actual application.”
Some of the key standards developed by C08 include:
• ASTM C20, Test Methods for Apparent Porosity, Water Absorption, Apparent Specific Gravity, and Bulk Density of Burned Refractory Brick and Shapes by Boiling Water;
• ASTM C357, Test Method for Bulk Density of Granular Refractory Materials;
• ASTM C862, Practice for Preparing Refractory Concrete Specimens by Casting; and,
• ASTM C704/C704M, Test Method for Abrasion Resistance of Refractory Materials at Room Temperature
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ASTM Committee C08 Next Meeting: March 25-26, 2014, St. Louis, Mo.
ASTM Staff Contact: Kathleen McClung, Phone: 610-832-9717; kmcclung@astm.org
ASTM PR Contact: Barbara Schindler, Phone: 610-832-9603; bschindl@astm.org
Release #9578