AS 3870—1991

Australian Standard
This is a free 6 page sample. Access the full version at http://infostore.saiglobal.com.

Certified reference materials—

General guide to material
selection, preparation, testing
and certification
 This Australian Standard was prepared by Committee CH/23, General Methods of
Chemical Analysis. It was approved on behalf of the Council of Standards Australia
on 3 December 1990 and published on 28 March 1991.

The following interests are represented on Committee CH/23:

Australian Government Analytical Laboratories
Australian Mineral Development Laboratories
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Confederation of Australian Industry

National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia
National Health and Medical Research Council
Railways of Australia Committee
Royal Australian Chemical Institute
University of Sydney

Review of Australian Standards. To keep abreast of progress in industry, Australian Standards are subject
to periodic review and are kept up to date by the issue of amendments or new edit ions as necessary. It is
important therefore that Standards users ensure that they are in possession of the latest editi on, and any
amendments thereto.
Full detail s of all Australi an Standards and related publications will be found in the Standards Australi a
Catalogue of Publications; this informati on is supplemented each month by the magazine ‘The Australi an
Standard’, which subscribing members receive, and which gives detail s of new publications, new edit ions
and amendments, and of withdrawn Standards.
Suggesti ons for improvements to Australian Standards, addressed to the head offi ce of Standards Australi a,
are welcomed. Notif ication of any inaccuracy or ambiguit y found in an Australi an Standard should be made
without delay in order that the matter may be investigated and appropriate action taken.

This Standard was issued in draft form for comment as DR 88024.

 AS 3870—1991

Australian Standard
This is a free 6 page sample. Access the full version at http://infostore.saiglobal.com.

Certified reference materials—

General guide to material
selection, preparation, testing
and certification

First publi shed as AS 3870—1991.

PUBLISHED BY STANDARDS AUSTRALIA

(STANDARDS ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA)
1 THE CRESCENT, HOMEBUSH, NSW 2140
ISBN 0 7262 6702 3
 AS 3870—1991 2

PREFACE
This Standard was prepared by the Standards Australia Committee on General Methods of Chemical
Analysis.
In recent years Standards Australia committees are becoming more aware of the need for the calibration
of apparatus and validation of test methods to attain the accuracy demanded by modern day technology.
There has been a greater call for reference materials as a simple and readily available means of
determining the accuracy of a test method as well as assisting in the calibration of test equipment to meet
this demand.
In the course of turning more towards the use of reference materials, Standards Australia is aware of the
limited number of certified reference materials that are available. Many committees have been forced to
initiate their own preparation of suitable materials to reliably fulfil the needs of calibration and validation.
With the cooperation of various laboratories, Standards Australia has already coordinated the preparation,
testing and certification of reference materials such as electrode carbon (ASCRM-003), iron ore
(ASCRM-004 to ASCRM-007), zircon sand concentrate (ASCRM-008), coal (ASCRM-009) and coal ash
(ASCRM-010), all of which have been certified for chemical composition, and float glass (ASCRM-002)
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which has been certified for abrasion resistance.

Drawing on the experiences of laboratories involved in these programs, this Standard has been prepared
to assist any committee or organization wishing to become involved in the preparation of certified
reference materials for the aforementioned purposes.
This Standard is applicable to materials which may be certified for either chemical or physical properties,
or both, and may be used in assessing products or processes applicable to many industries, e.g. the
assessment of water quality, foodstuffs, chemical reagents, building materials, packaging, industrial and
medical gases, coating materials and biological products.
Considerable reference has been made to documentation of ISO, BSI, ASTM, NBS and CANMET in the
preparation of this Standard.

 Copyri ght STANDARDS AUSTRALIA

Users of Standards are reminded that copyri ght subsists in all Standards Australi a publications and soft ware. Except where the
Copyri ght Act all ows and except where provided for below no publications or software produced by Standards Austr alia may be
reproduced, stored in a retri eval system in any form or transmitt ed by any means without pri or permission in wri ti ng fr om
Standards Australi a. Permission may be conditi onal on an appropriate royalt y payment. Requests for permission and information on
commercial soft ware royalti es should be dir ected to the head off ice of Standards Australi a.
Standards Australi a wil l permit up to 10 percent of the technical content pages of a Standard to be copied for use
exclusively in-house by purchasers of the Standard without payment of a royalty or advice to Standards Austr alia.
Standards Australi a wil l also permit the inclusion of its copyri ght material in computer soft ware programs for no royalt y
payment provided such programs are used exclusively in-house by the creators of the programs.
Care should be taken to ensure that material used is fr om the current editi on of the Standard and that it is updated whenever the
Standard is amended or revised. The number and date of the Standard should therefore be clearly identif ied.
The use of material in pri nt form or in computer soft ware programs to be used commercially, with or without payment, or in
commercial contracts is subject to the payment of a royalty. This policy may be vari ed by Standards Austr alia at any ti me.
 3 AS 3870—1991

CONTENTS
Page
1 SCOPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . ... . 4
2 REFERENCED DOCUMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . ... . 4
3 DEFINITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . ... . 4
4 PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . ... . 5
5 RESPONSIBILITY FOR PREPARATION, TESTING AND CERTIFICATION .. . . . . ... . 5
6 SELECTION OF MATERIALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . ... . 5
7 PACKAGING, CONTAINERS AND MATERIALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . ... . 6
8 PREPARATION OF MATERIALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . 7
9 TESTING FOR HOMOGENEITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . 9
10 INTERLABORATORY TESTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . 9
11 EVALUATION OF RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . ... . 12
12 CERTIFICATE, LABELLING AND TECHNICAL REPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . 14
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APPENDIX A EQUIPMENT FOR GRINDING, MIXING AND REDUCING SOLID

MATERIALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
 AS 3870—1991 4

STANDARDS AUSTRALIA

Australian Standard
Certified reference materials —
General guide to material selection, preparation, testing and certification

1 SCOPE This Standard provides broad guidelines for the selection of a suitable source material, and its
subsequent preparation, testing and certification as a reference material intended for use in the calibration of
apparatus, the assessment of a method of analysis, or for assigning compositional values to related materials.
2 REFERENCED DOCUMENTS The following documents are referred to in this Standard:
AS
1152 Test sieves
1216 Classification, hazard identification and information systems for dangerous goods
1216.1 Part 1: Classification and class labels for dangerous goods
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2243 Safety in laboratories

2252 Biological safety cabinets
2252.2 Part 2: Laminar flow biological safety cabinets (Class II) for personnel and product protection
2508 Safe storage and handling information cards for hazardous materials
2582 Complete, filled transport packages — Methods of test
2646 Sampling of solid mineral fuels
2646.6 Part 6: Hard coal — Preparation of samples
2667 Chemical testing — Sampling — Glossary of terms
2719 Traceable reference gases — For analysis of emission gases of internal combustion engines and
motor vehicles — Preparation, analysis and certification
2830 Good laboratory practice
2830.1 Part 1: Chemical analysis
2850 Chemical analysis — Interlaboratory test programs — For determining precision of analytical
method(s) — Guide to the planning and conduct
3536 Reference gases — Preparation of gravimetric standards
3638 Test sieving procedures
ISO
Guide 30 Terms and definitions used in connection with reference materials
Guide 35 Certification of reference materials — General and statistical principles
ASTM
E 826 Testing homogeneity of materials for the development of reference materials
ADG Code Australian code for the transport of dangerous goods by road and rail (published by the
Australian Government Publishing Service)
3 DEFINITIONS For the purpose of this Standard, the definitions given in AS 2667 and ISO Guide 30,
and those below apply.
3.1 Accuracy — the closeness of agreement between an observed value or test result, and the true value or
accepted reference value.
NOTE: The smaller the systematic part of the experimental errors which affect the results, the more accurate is the procedure.
3.2 Certification — the process of assessing, defining and authorizing by the issue of a certificate, values for
selected characteristics or properties of a material of defined form, by various well-established reproducible
procedures.
3.3 Certifiable characteristics — those characteristics which remain stable under specified conditions for
a defined period and which can be established by prescribed procedures.
3.4 Certified reference material (CRM) — a reference material of which one or more property values have
been certified by validated procedures, and which is accompanied by, or traceable to, a certificate or other
documentation issued by the certifying body and attesting to its property value(s).

COPYRIGHT
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AS 3870-1991, Certified reference materials -

General guide to material selection, preparation,
testing and certification
This is a free 6 page sample. Access the full version at http://infostore.saiglobal.com.

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