The Chair requested input from experts participating in the ISO group.

Last meeting was in October 2013. ISO 3537 will come in DIS stage, for gathering comments. It will contain no modification of the test method for glass. For ISO 15082 for plastics, the reference value for plastic was defined.

The ISO group discussed the possibility of defining a corrective coefficient, this discussion was not finished, but it was decided to start a request for comment procedure (CD ballot).

PSA was of the opinion that the tolerances are too high even for a corrective factor, and proposed to go for 1 sigma. Then only 68% of the participating labs would have acceptable values. The correction formula, used in addition to the 1 sigma, could also be an idea that should be investigated. UTAC, PSA and Renault had very different results. The expert from PSA recommended to further check the test procedure.

Dr Buckle was of the opinion that using mineral abrasive particles in an organic binder could not provide a homogenous particle distribution in the abrasive wheels. In addition, the haze measurement itself could be at the origin of the differences, as well as the cleaning method.

There was an exchange of view on the way to proceed within the ISO group.

The problem of having an inhomogeneous track was raised, but this could be at least partially overcome thanks to the 7mm spot with a mask.

Conclusion: French labs are urged to approach the ISO SC11 Secretary to propose improvements in the ISO group.

The opinion of Mr. Jaenecke (TI – Taber Instrument) about the influence of the haze measurement on the results is that it has an impact with no view of the amount of impact. Mr. Jaenecke committed to find an expert internally to check the impact of measurement. Concerning the correction formula, Mr. Jaenecke was of the opinion that this could be of a valuable impact, and would support this way forward.

PSA questioned the haze measurement, because the “fenster” (window) for measurement is quite narrow, and questioned whether the use of the mask could generate errors in the results. TI said that a bad calibration of the instrument could lead to the spot being out of the track. Yet a good calibration should avoid these problems.

BMS was surprised that even when performing a calibration with the calibration set provided by TI, some discrepancies on the results appear.

PSA said that if the mask is as large as the track, then one part of the abraded part would be not as abraded as it should be. BMS recalled the 1st Round Robin test which concluded that the hazemeter was not the origin of the problem, neither the hazemeter operator.

Renault questioned whether it is possible to change the TI test method such to arrive to a 5% haze, e.g. by changing the wheels.

TI needed to investigate which wheels could reach these values, the expert was confident this would achieve that, and committed to investigate internally and provide data. Dr. Dümmler doubted that this would help the group. The informal group was of the opinion that e.g. changing the distance between the nozzle and the sample may have influence on the plastic material results, but not on the glass material’s. it was agreed not to continue this way, and that it was no time to re-start this discussion from scratch and changing the Taber test. Dr. Dümmler said that in term of delay (DIS to be finalized per July 2014) this would not be recommended.

Conclusion: ISO glass already on track. For plastic, IGPG to continue its work.