A group of scientists and engineers, led by Charles Dudley, formed ASTM in 1898 to address the frequent railbreaks affecting the fast-growing railroad industry. The group developed a standard for the steel used to fabricate rails. Originally called the "American Society for Testing Materials" in 1902, it became the "American Society for Testing and Materials" in 1961 before it changed its name to “ASTM International” in 2001 and added the tagline "Standards Worldwide". In 2014, it changed the tagline to "Helping our World Work better". Now, ASTM International has offices in Belgium, Canada, China, Peru, and Washington, D.C.
Membership and organization
Membership in the organization is open to anyone with an interest in its activities. Standards are developed within committees, and new committees are formed as needed, upon request of interested members. Membership in most committees is voluntary and is initiated by the member's own request, not by appointment nor by invitation. Members are classified as users, producers, consumers, and "general interest". The latter includes academics and consultants. Users include industry users, who may be producers in the context of other technical committees, and end-users such as consumers. In order to meet the requirements of antitrust laws, producers must constitute less than 50% of every committee or subcommittee, and votes are limited to one per producer company. Because of these restrictions, there can be a substantial waiting-list of producers seeking organizational memberships on the more popular committees. Members can, however, participate without a formal vote and their input will be fully considered. As of 2015, ASTM has more than 30,000 members, including over 1,150 organizational members, from more than 140 countries. The members serve on one or more of 140+ ASTM Technical Committees. ASTM International has several awards for contributions to standards authorship, including the ASTM International Award of Merit ASTM International is classified by the United States Internal Revenue Service as a 501 nonprofit organization.
Standards compliance
ASTM International has no role in requiring or enforcing compliance with its standards. The standards, however, may become mandatory when referenced by an external contract, corporation, or government.
In the United States, ASTM standards have been adopted, by incorporation or by reference, in many federal, state, and municipal government regulations. The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act, passed in 1995, requires the federal government to use privately developed consensus standards whenever possible. The Act reflects what had long been recommended as best practice within the federal government.
Other governments also have referenced ASTM standards.
Corporations doing international business may choose to reference an ASTM standard.
All toys sold in the United States must meet the safety requirements of ASTM F963, Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety, as part of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. The law makes the ASTM F963 standard a mandatory requirement for toys while the Consumer Product Safety Commission studies the standard's effectiveness and issues final consumer guidelines for toy safety.
