Introduction
Standardisation is a living process. Often yesterday’s development is today’s operation, based upon tomorrow’s standard.
Formulating a standard at a national level is a relatively easy task, unimpeded by any language barriers or local procedures. However, for over half a century efforts have been underway to unite gas cylinder manufacturing and operations under a global umbrella. In the early days efforts at the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) were thwarted by various nations, each with what it considered to be a worthy cause. Sometimes the reasons for the lack of an agreement were embedded in a nation’s belief in their long held (but considered by others to be outmoded) practices, while other nations attempted to achieve a technologically advanced product from a global standard. Occasionally, poor communications also contributed to the overall slow progress. As you can imagine, such opposing objectives bred an atmosphere of distrust and compromises were difficult to achieve.
It took several decades to break down these barriers and for confidences to be built. But once a hardcore of experts got truly underway, standards began to flow under the auspices of a technical committee, ISO TC58 (Gas Cylinders).
The result is that there are currently well over 50 standards within its repertoire, with many of the documents assisting gas cylinder manufacturers and users alike. Of greater interest is the importance given by some competent authorities (governmental bodies) to these standards both by incorporating them at national levels, while also agreeing to their international use. There are still however some glaring exceptions with major nations such as S. Korea, Japan, the US, and Canada yet to incorporate certain basic standards into their national legislation.
... to continue reading you must be subscribed
