A new ASTM International standard will provide advice for designers considering building parts using the powder bed fusion for metals (PBF-LB) process. ASTM’s additive manufacturing committee (F42) developed the standard, which will soon be published as F3530.

According to ASTM International member Farhan Khan, the new guide provides an overview of the most commonly used post-processing operations, challenges in carrying out those operations, and best practices on how to address these challenges.

ASTM International’s exoskeletons and exosuits committee (F48) is developing a proposed standard that will provide a test method for vertical movement of exoskeletons in confined spaces.

“The proposed standard will provide a test method for workers who must traverse  manholes and other similar confined spaces while wearing an exoskeleton,” says ASTM International member Roger Bostelman.

ASTM International’s plastics committee (D20) is developing a proposed standard that will help polyolefin manufacturers to measure material properties. Polyolefins are used in a variety of applications, including shrink wrap, shopping bags, food packaging, and dishwasher-safe containers, among others.

ASTM International’s committee on pesticides, antimicrobials, and alternative control agents (E35) is developing a proposed standard that will provide guidelines on how to test microbial barrier properties of solid wound dressings that include liquid adhesives.

ASTM’s commercial spaceflight committee (F47) has approved a new standard that will help to enhance commercial spaceflight safety. The standard (F3550) provides guidance to space flight operators on classifying safety-related events.

A new ASTM International standard (F3548) will be used to satisfy requirements that are expected to be common for traffic management of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), commonly referred to as drones.

The flight operations subcommittee of ASTM’s unmanned aircraft committee (F38) developed the new standard on UAS traffic management (UTM) with input garnered across multiple continents and a diverse group of industry contributors.

ASTM International’s forensic sciences committee (E30) has developed a new standard that will be used by forensic experts to determine the minerals within geological material. The new standard will soon be published as E3294.

ASTM International member Libby Stern notes that soils and other geological material that are being tested as trace evidence are often too small to be tested by conventional X-ray diffraction sample preparation techniques.

A proposed ASTM International standard will satisfy the need for a practice that describes how to use impulse excitation as a means of detecting defects in metal parts. The nondestructive testing committee (E07) is developing the proposed standard (WK81106).

ASTM International’s recovered carbon black (rCB) committee (D36) is developing a proposed standard that will be used to differentiate between different rCB products and provide quality control tool for producers and users.

ASTM International’s metallic-coated iron and steel products committee (A05) is developing a proposed standard that will demonstrate how bend testing can be used to determine how well metallic coatings adhere to steel sheet.

ASTM International member Betsy Hoppe says that the proposed test method was initiated after a steel sheet producer with a continuous hot-dip galvanizing line requested a standard that could help improve their test for metallic coating adhesion.