Polymer Testing 5 (1985) 167-168

E D I T O R I A L

Way back in Volume 1, No. 4 of Polymer Testing the editorial addressed the irritation of not being able to make valid comparison of manufacturers ' l i terature because in so many cases they all used different national or company test methods and generally failed to give the essential test details, such as choice of test piece or test speed. Perhaps irritation was the wrong word because this lack of ability to make fair comparison is inconvenient, inefficient in terms of the time of those needing the data and even downright dangerous in that a false impression of material performance could be gained.

It was not really expected that there would be a sudden improve- ment in this situation, and indeed the commercial reasons for being both selective and vague as regards test methods and conditions can be appreciated. More recently, however, a new pressure has become apparen t - - the materials proper ty data base.

It may not be too certain whether it is realisation of the power of the computer to readily allow selective access to large quantities of data or the existence of large numbers of computers needing some- thing to go on them, but everyone nowadays seems to want to put information on to disk and call it a data base.

Whatever people 's motives, and accepting that some data bases will be very much more use than others, it is both reasonable and desirable that data on the properties of rubbers and plastics are collated and held in a form which can be interrogated to help the selection process for a given application. For the data base, or expert system, to be useful it is important for the quality of the input data to be satisfactory. Perhaps the first aspect of data quality is its degree of meaningfulness in terms of its use for design decisions. In this respect, it is noticeable that al though the need for more meaningful or fundamenta l data on the properties of materials is still heard loud and often, there is apparent ly less derision of the relatively arbitrary data obtained from many standard methods. Perhaps, when faced with a choice between what we have or no data base at all, realism

167 Polymer Testing (5) (1985)--~ Elsevier Applied Science Publishers Ltd, England, 1985. Printed in Northern Ireland

168 Editorial

sets in. The o ther aspect of data quality is our old friend comparable data. This you cannot have without quite strict standardisation.

A t the time of writing, at least two initiatives have been taken, one in Japan and one in the UK, to prepare the ground for materials p roper ty data bases by examining, and hopeful ly rationalising, the posit ion as regards standard test methods. Clearly, there is a lot of effort needed to establish which s tandard methods (and test condi- tions) should be used, and even more to persuade eve rybody to use them. It seems a great pity that the discipline could not have been established for common-sense reasons long ago, rather than waiting for the needs of the computer . Af ter all, those involved in standards generat ion have been preaching the need for comparable results for as long as anyone can remember . They might now be flattered by increased at tention to their subject , but they will not be pleased if prospect ive data base owners try to dictate their work.

R. Brown