ASTM International has been publishing material standards since 1898. These standards help ensure that materials are consistent, perform as intended and are relatively uniform regardless of the number of producers of a particular material. ASTM standards are produced through a consensus process in which producers, consumers and interested parties work together to create and maintain standards that are acceptable to all affected parties and are representative of what is being produced by that industry.
As material and manufacturing technologies evolve, so must the standards that are used to ensure that the products selected represent the specifier's intentions and provide what the consumer has paid for. Even when there are only a few products in a family of materials, such as gypsum panel products, keeping all of the relevant standards up to date is a daunting chore. One reason for this is that ASTM standards reference related materials and their respective application and testing standards. For instance, the soon-to-be-replaced ASTM C 36, "Standard Specification for Gypsum Wallboard," a relatively simple material standard, references the following other ASTM standards: