Standardizing the World

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an organization that develops standards for the world. While the US market tends to focus on our homegrown standards organizations (ANSI and ASTM), the European Union and Asia focus on ISO standards. Because we are a worldwide company with international products, MAPEI is extremely active in both sets of standards. I spent last weekend in Bologna, Italy as the working groups for tile met to move forward with a variety of initiatives before most of the attendees headed off to CERSAIE, the Italian tile show.

The meetings were held in the Royal Carlton Hotel.  Each working group (WG) is related to one aspect of the tile industry and includes a Convener (Chairperson) and experts.  The groups that met were Test Methods (WG1), Product Specifications (WG3), Installation Products (WG3), Large Ceramic Tiles (WG4), Sustainability (WG7), Slip Resistance (WG10) and a new one this year, Uncoupling Membranes (WG11).  Most of the experts attend multiple sessions and represent not just their company, but often the interests of the country from which they are attending.  MAPEI was represented by Stefano Carra who is the Director of R&D for MAPEI in Italy and by me from the US.

To be honest, interational standards take years to develop.  A 'fast track' standard assumes at least 4 years between initiation and completion.  Complicated standards like sustainability have been churning away for many years and have to file for extensions to continue.  These face to face meetings are combined with regular e-meetings held by video conference, but there are advantages to having everyone in the same room to work out specific details.  The meetings are held in English which is a bit of an international standard in itself.

As a sidenote, I was heartened to pass a MAPEI silo on my way to the meetings, Bologna is repairing the streets in the downtown area and replacing years of pavement with Bolognini, cubic blocks of basalt that are very typical for Italian road surfaces and laid in geometric patterns by expert craftsmen. MAPEI is providing the material that is placed between the blocks to fill the voids, a mix of mortar and sand developed for the purpose.

I am the convener of Working Group 3 and am tasked with developing standards for Installation Products.  For the last two years, we have been working on a standard for sheet applied waterproofing membranes.  Progress has been slow as we work to find common grounds among diverse manufacturers and countries.  I'm pleased to say that we made some excellent progress during this Working Group meeting and should be able to send out the standard to ballot based on the meeting.  

Standards work is not glamorous and can be very hard to explain when people ask "what do you do?"  The backdrop of exotic locations quickly gives way to the reality of sitting in a darkened conference room talking for hours about minutia.  However, the process of developing standards is important as it protects end users from products that may not work as advertised by setting minimum performance requirements.  From a personal perspective, it is interesting to me to sit in a room with representatives from around the world and share our similarities as well as our differences.  It's just one more way that MAPEI is everywhere.