Producers of fluorocarbons are invited to join in the ongoing standards developing activities of ASTM International Committee D26 on Halogenated Organic Solvents and Fire Extinguishing Agents. The committee has recently approved a new standard, ASTM D7509, Specification for Fluorocarbon Feedstock Grade Chloroform, under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee D26.08 on Halogenated Organics Used as Feedstocks.

Producers of feedstock for the fluorocarbon industry as well as fluorocarbon producers themselves will be users of ASTM D7509, according to Douglas Terry, chair of Committee D26. “Until fairly recently, most feedstock was produced in the U.S. and Europe,” says Terry. “Now we are seeing more being produced in Asia for use in that area. It’s an international market and ASTM produces international standards. It makes sense now to have international standards for these feedstocks. Chloroform is a major feedstock, so we started with it.”

Committee D26 plans to continue to develop feedstock standards. “We are certainly interested in participation by the users, the fluorocarbon producers from both the manufacturing view (specifications) and analytical (test methods),” says Terry. “We have participation by some producers, but we would like to see more of that also, and we certainly welcome general interest.”

ASTM International standards are available for purchase from Customer Service (phone: 610-832-9585; https://www.astm.org/contact/) or at www.astm.org.

For technical Information, contact Douglas Terry, Dow Chemical Co., Freeport, Texas (phone: 979-238-4232; dlterry@dow.com). Committee D26 meets Jan. 27, 2010, during the January committee week in San Antonio, Texas.

ASTM International welcomes and encourages participation in the development of its standards. ASTM’s open consensus process, using advanced Internet-based standards development tools, ensures worldwide access for all interested individuals. For more information on becoming an ASTM member, please contact Christine DeJong, ASTM International (phone: 610-832-9736; cdejong@astm.org).

Release #8216