STANDARDIZATION OF IRON AND STEELMAKING A ND FIRST TRANSFORMATION PRODUCTS

The European standardization of iron and steelmaking and first transfo rmation products was placed under the responsibility of the European C ommittee of Iron and Steel Standardization (ECISS), an organization as sociated with the European Committee of Standardization (ECS). The ECI SS was created on the basis of the Coordination Committee (COCOR) of i ron and steel making products of the ECSC. From 1953 to 1986, the COCO R prepared more than 200 ''EURONORME'' (EU) documents on ECSC products . These were reference documents which could be used or not in nationa l standards, but their application was not compulsory. However, docume nts established by the ECISS, called ''European Standards'' (EN) must be applied. They take the place of national standards. Consequently, i t is indispensable that the concerned nations participate in the Europ ean standardization work. The ECISS is made of the 12 EEC countries an d the 6 EFTA countries. It includes, in addition to its secretarial se rvices, the Go-ordination Committee (COCOR), the deciding body, and te chnical committees in charge of preparing the European standards. Four type of documents are elaborated : - The European standard, which, wi thin a delay of 6 months, must replace the standards established on th e same subject ; - the European pre-standards on new or controversial subjects; their duration is 3 years (experimental standards) ; they ma y, after examination, be transformed into European standards; - harmon ization documents in which, besides points of agreement, differences p er countries appear, - the technical report which provides complements to a standard or to technical information. The various steps of the E uropean standardization procedure are the following : new proposals or revisions of standards are adopted by the COCOR and submitted to the competent technical committee which establishes a draft standard and s ubmits it to the ECISS. After investigation, the final project is esta blished and adopted by the COCOR. The ECS ratifies this decision by a vote. Finally, this project is used in national standards. When a subj ect in inscribed in the European program no standardization action may be undertaken on the level of each nation on this theme. The adoption decisions are voted by the qualified majority with weighted vote in s pecial conditions by each of the COCOR and ECS bodies. In France, it i s the AFNOR which is the organization responsible for standardization. The technical work is confided to standardization offices (BN) : BNS for iron and steelmaking and fil st transformation products, BNTA for pipes and BNIF for molded parts. On May 31, 1994, 78 European standard s were published or adopted, 16 projects are being investigated, 165 s ubjects are being studied by the ECISS. To avoid any conflict between the ECS and the ISO (International Standards Orgalzization), the Vienn a agreement foresees that a same subject may be treated on only one le vel, either European (ECS) or international (ISO). For the free circul ation of products in Europe, the Committee edits directives and fixes the essential requirements that products must respect. It is important that experts in the profession participate in the work of the Nationa l Standardization Committee or communicate in writing their comments t o the BNS or the BNTA Indeed, in the long run, the European standard w ill replace the French standard and if French points of view are not d efended or taken into account, the results may be catastrophic. Thanks to the efforts of all, the French position is strong, but serious att ention must be paid to the renewal of experts. In summary, vigilance, presence and competency are assets for success.