All technical meetings and committee events were held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic. The central European location allowed for the participation of several of ASTM’s global members and interested participants. Highlights from the weeklong event are included below.
This was the second international meeting for Committee D24 on Carbon Black, and approximately half of those in attendance were international participants. Meetings were held on sampling and statistics, rubber testing, and microscopy and morphology. The success of this meeting paved the way for additional international meetings, and plans for a meeting in China in 2011 are now under way.
The meetings of Committee E55 on Manufacture of Pharmaceutical Products focused on new standards initiatives, including a proposed standard guide for verification of PAT (Process Analytical Technology) systems. E55’s agenda also included a presentation on the relevance of E55’s most widely used standard, ASTM E2500, Standard Guide for Specification, Design and Verification of Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Systems and Equipment, which is being used by pharmaceutical manufacturers to create greater efficiency and reduce costs relative to the production of pharmaceutical products.
In addition to their technical committee meetings on chemical/safety properties and packaging design and development, Committee F02 on Flexible Barrier Packaging held a successful workshop on test methods for the packaging of medical devices. Participants from 12 different countries attended the workshop, which focused on repeatability and reproducibility in ASTM test methods.
More than 20 attendees representing five countries attended the meetings of Committee F40 on Declarable Substances in Materials. The meetings focused on new work items and the approval of a revision to ASTM F2725, Standard Guide for European Union’s Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) Supply Chain Information Exchange. A REACH/RoHS roundtable was also held with experts from the U.S. mission in Brussels to provide updates on future REACH/RoHS activities.
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