Standardization News

For several years, ASTM International Committee E11 on Quality and Statistics has been preserving military sampling standards no longer supported by the U.S. Department of Defense. The latest ASTM standard to emerge from this program is E2819, Practice for Single- and Multi-Level Continuous Sampling of a Stream of Product by Attributes Indexed by AQL.

"The reason for preserving military sampling standards is that many organizations throughout the world still use these standards in their current form," says Dean Neubauer, engineering fellow at Corning Inc., chairman of E11 and coordinator of the SN DataPoints column. "This practice represents a conversion of MIL-STD-1235B to an ASTM-supported standard."

E2819, which is under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee E11.30 on Statistical Quality Control, is a direct conversion of MIL-STD-1235B, Military Standard: Single- and Multi-Level Continuous Sampling Procedures and Tables for Inspection by Attributes. The only changes made to the standard were done to satisfy requirements in ASTM's Form and Style for ASTM Standards.

According to Neubauer, E2819 establishes tables and procedures for applying five different types of continuous sampling plans for inspection by attributes.

Primary users of the standard will be industries such as semiconductor and pharmaceutical companies that use continuous line manufacturing in which it is difficult to identify discrete production lots.

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CONTACT Technical Information: Dean Neubauer, Corning Inc. • Corning, N.Y. • Phone: 607-974-6777 O ASTM Staff: Alyson Fick • Phone: 610-832-9710 O Upcoming Meeting: May 16-18 • ASTM Headquarters, West Conshohocken, Pa.