JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 18

BUSINESS
Trends

New materials: what kind of standards are
needed to support innovation?
AFNOR, the central standardisation body in France, surveys requirements, draws up standardisation strategies, coordinates and directs the activity of the standardisation offices, validates draft standards and approves the final French standards. As a member of both the European (CEN) and international (ISO) standardisation bodies, AFNOR plays an influential role on each, in particular as the secretariat for the technical committees (TC).
Europe and ISO internationally. They define voluntary characteristics and rules and result from the consensus reached between all stakeholders within a market or a sector of activity. For composites, these documents may be found across a wide variety of major standardisation programmes ranging from industrial engineering and materials through transport, energy and construction to consumer goods. They are distributed among the standardisation committees of 11 standardisation offices, the main ones being the BNPP (Bureau de Normalisation des Plastiques et de la Plasturgie - Plastics and Plastics Processing Standardisation Office), the BNAE (Bureau de Normalisation de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace Aerospace Standardisation Office), the UTE (Union Technique de l’Electricité - Electrotechnical Union) and AFNOR. This standardisation may appear to be piecemeal, but it does meet perfectly identified requirements, for example: - introducing on the European market new equipment in compliance with European directives on transportable pressure vessels and RID/ADR regulations for gas cylinders made of composite materials - the needs of aerospace and nuclear equipment manufacturers for technical ceramics. Around 40 test method standards for characterising materials and analysing their behaviour have been drafted in Europe under CEN/TC 184 SC1 (AFNOR secretariat) for mechanical and thermal properties and for fibre/matrix interfaces. This standard corpus currently being promoted internationally is due to be supplemented with new aerospace certification standards (lifespan, impact resistance, etc.).

FABIENNE RAMIREZ STANDARDISATION DEVELOPMENT MANAGER INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING, EQUIPMENTS AND MATERIALS, AND DEFENCE AFNOR NORMALISATION

H

aving observed the dynamism of the composites sector, the "Industrial engineering, capital goods and materials" strategic committee launched a think-tank in 2009 on the standardisation needs for composite materials. This is a very mixed market, with a high diversity of composites in terms of types of matrix and of fibres, manufacturing technologies and applications. Technologically and economically driven by the aerospace sector, it is characterised by a wealth of R&D projects, such as those carried out, for example, in competitive clusters such as EMC2 or Aerospace Valley.

Standards to meet technical and regulatory industrial needs
Standardisation for composites proves to be just as mixed and varied. Approximately 250 standards and reference systems have been identified for composite materials. These are reference documents approved by recognised standardisation institutes such as AFNOR in France, CEN in

More information ...
AFNOR is an international services delivery network that revolves around 4 core competency areas: standardization, certification, industry press, and training. The AFNOR has the unique stance of carrying out its standardization mission as a public-benefit organization while conducting some of its business in the competitive arena. The AFNOR's core strengths — know-how and expertise — forge a skillset exploited by over 75,000 customers in 90 countries worldwide.

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jec composites magazine / No57 May 2010
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010
