Interlaboratory Study (ILS) for ATC's Innovative Automated Ball Indentation (ABI) Test Methods is now available. To download the comprehensive (78-page) ABI Round-Robin (RR) Report including the balloted draft ASTM standard test methods click on "ABI RR-Report". This report is praised as one of the best ASTM Round Robin reports. It was not funded by ASTM although they now spend millions of dollars to complete RR for thousands of issued standard test methods currently without precision statements. It was submitted to ASTM in 2003 but was not published because of attempts at identity theft by several ASTM officers/staff. The ABI Test Methods are a threat to the destructive/conventional tensile and fracture toughness test methods. The ABI task was disbanded by the vendors of conventional equipment with the blessing of ASTM who refused to enforce their own regulations or police their officers.
Some of the same people have attempted similar practices through ISO. Do not be deceived by the 2008 ISO Technical Report TR29381 which is neither state-of-the-art nor an issued standard. It is a non-balloted/unproven document that is intended for identity theft, plagiarism, and deception. A Korean company is claiming their equipment performs the ABI tests and claims the ISO report TR29381 is an ISO standard for the ABI test. The report contains fraudulent and misleading statements and erroneous equations and plagiarizes the ABI partial-unloading technique. The Korean author of the ISO report and task convenor refused to participate in the 2003 ASTM Round Robin because his Korean equipment does not produce any satisfactory test results.
ATC is proud of its reputation for providing state-of-the-art equipment and testing services. We are committed to providing equipment and services that protect lives, the environment, and our infrastructure.
Other standardization news: The ABI test technique is referenced in Standardization News and other publications
DOT issues Advisory Bulletin: "Pipeline Safety: Potential Low and Variable Yield and Tensile Strength and Chemical Composition Properties in High Strength Line Pipe" Federal Register, Vol. 74, No. 97, Docket PHMSA-2009-148, May 21, 2009. Click here to see ATC's in-situ, nondestructive solution to this problem.
ATC wins 2008 Energy-TV Pipeline - New Pipeline Technology Award
October 1, 2008, Energy-TV presented awards in conjunction with the International Pipeline Exposition, Calgary, Canada.
Research News:
Gas Technology Institute, Project 20568
A joint project with Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is being finalized. GTI is investigating: 1) the use of hot-tapping to cut plugs from pipelines in order to make small cylindrical test specimens, and 2) ATC's in-situ/nondestrucive ABI technique that has been in commercial use by the pipeline industry for the past 10 years. ATC participated by providing testing services including in-situ ABI testing on pipeline sections and miniature flat tensile testing. ATC also sent rings cut from the pipeline sections to an accredited commercial laboratory for full-size tensile testing according to API-5L. ATC submitted a final report and an addendum, both of which can be downloaded.
Final Report, “In-Situ Measurement of Tensile and Fracture Toughness Properties and Determination of Pipe Grade Using the Innovative ABI Test,” November 2008
Addendum, “In-Situ Measurement of Tensile and Fracture Toughness Properties of Pipeline Sections Using the Innovative ABI Test of ATC’s SSM System," February 2009
Pipeline Research Council International, Project PR-345-063517
ATC completed a project with Shell Pipeline and Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI), "In-Situ Measurement of Pipeline Mechanical Properties Using Stress-Strain Microprobe - Validation of Data for Increased Confidence & Accuracy." The report is available from the PRCI website. The report also contains ATC's copyrighted Standard ABI Test Methods with the precision values from a complete round robin study.
Catalog Number: L52280 or L52280e (e-book version)
Or search by Project No. PR-345-063517
