Subcommittee SC 8 "Sealants", seven of its Working Groups and five Ad Hoc Groups met in Guangzhou, China, during three days in October 2018. Experts and delegates from Belgium, China, France, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, Korea, United Kingdom and the USA were attending the meetings.
Excellent progress was made in both the Working Groups and Ad Hoc Group meetings. Four of the Working Groups are dealing with revisions of existing ISO standards: WG10 “Aesthetic Issues” (ISO 16938), WG 14 “Stringiness of Sealants (ISO 11527), WG18 “Surface Preparations” (ISO 13640), and WG 12 “Vocabulary” (ISO 6927), while three Working Groups are focused on the development of new standards: WG 20 Adhesion Peel Test, WG 21 Test Method of Microbiological Susceptibility of Sanitary Sealants, and WG 22 Cure Profile of Sealants. The various Ad Hoc Groups are laying the foundation for potential future standards by working on a wide range of topics: Consequences of Mass and Volume Changes on Sealant Performance (AHG 9), Foam Sealing Products (AHG 11), Adhesion of Coatings to Sealants (AHG 12), Dirt Pick-up of Sealants and Coated Sealants (AHG 13), Measurement of Self-levelling Properties (AHG 14).
At the meeting in Guangzhou, SC8 decided to convert AHG 14 into a new working group (WG 23) and to create two more Working Groups focused on the revision of standards: WG 24 “Determination of Adhesion/Cohesion Properties of Sealants at Constant Temperature” (ISO 9046) and WG 25 “Determination of Resistance to Prolonged Exposure to Water” (ISO 13638). SC8 has now three working groups that are led by conveners based in Asia (WG21: Korea, WG23 and WG25: China).
As the current chair, Andreas Wolf, will reach the end of his nine-year term by the end of this year, the secretariat, in coordination with the incumbent chairman, proposed to approve Mr. Ruud De Block as SC 8 Chair Elect effective immediately and as SC 8 Chair from 1 January 2019 onwards. All delegates enthusiastically supported this proposal and the incoming chair expressed his warmest thanks and deep appreciation for all his contributions, extra ordinary work and leadership skills to the outgoing chair.
SC8 was excited to visit one of the world's largest construction sealants markets and highly appreciated the invitation to Guangzhou by the Chinese delegation and the Standardization Administration of China (SAC). SC8 expressed their heartfelt thanks to SAC, the Shanghai Institute of Rubber Products, and to Guangzhou Baiyun Chemical Industry Co., one of the leading Chinese sealant manufacturers, for their impressive local organizational support and for hosting the various meetings and exciting and memorable social events, which included a welcome reception dinner, a visit to the observation platform of the Guangzhou Tower, and a dinner cruise on the Zhujiang river that offered very valuable networking opportunities and unique gastronomic experiences.
