NEW YORK — ASTM International’s technical standards for copper and copper alloys are currently
shifting to incorporate more international and performance-based criteria, the head of the group’s copper
committee said.
“It’s an interesting time for us,” ASTM Committee B05 on Copper and Copper Alloys chairman Charles
B. Blanton told AMM. “We’re going through a transition.”
The copper committee has seen increased interest from “quite a few” European companies, according
to Blanton, who is also corporate director of environmental health and safety at Memphis, Tenn.-based
Mueller Industries Inc. Blanton was named chair of the B05 committee last month (amm.com, April 19).
“ASTM has made a push to get more international involvement,” he explained. “We have four or five
Europeans that are very active and participate physically in our committee meetings.”
To address the needs of an increasingly global and modern industry, the copper committee is beginning
to integrate European alloys into some of ASTM’s standards.
“That’s new for us,” Blanton said. “Typically we’ve used the U.S. standards, but now we’re seeing some
of the (European Norms) numbers come in.”
The reason behind the rising European presence at ASTM is not so much copper or copper alloys
manufacturers but rather their end-users. A kitchen faucet maker with a growing global footprint, for
example, would be a typical end-user in need of standards that cross continental borders.
“It’s a function of the global economy,” Blanton said. “We’re becoming a smaller world.”
A copper alloy manufacturer can now tweak an alloy’s chemistry and more easily meet the
specifications of both European and U.S. requirements to provide end-users with raw material from the
same cast. So, if a European requirement for a particular alloy requires 59 percent to 63 percent copper,
and the U.S. equivalent requires 57 percent to 61 percent copper, then a manufacturer could hit a
“sweet spot.”
Previously, a copper alloy manufacturer could hit that sweet spot, but “we’re making it a little bit easier,”
Blanton said. “We’ve got the ASTM standard, and now you could use a European alloy rather than
having to get the (European Norms) standard.”
Meanwhile, another trend in the copper standards realm is the growing need for performance-based
criteria, particularly in the refrigeration industry. “We are in the very initial stages of going to
performance-based standards,” Blanton said.
Traditionally, ASTM standards would dictate a specific wall thickness acceptable for a certain application
of copper tube, for instance. Now ASTM is starting to develop requirements in terms of the pressure—or
pounds per square inch that a tube can withstand—rather than its wall size per se.
This is especially true for refrigeration, Blanton noted. Indeed, rising demand for “green” refrigerants is
placing increased pressure on copper tubing requirements, according to Luvata U.K. Ltd. (amm.com,
Dec. 31)

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