(Correspondent: Deng Yizhi) On July 27, Meteorological Balloons – Specification (ISO 17717: 2017(E)), an international standard developed by Zhuzhou Research & Design Institute on behalf of China, was officially launched, indicating the birth of the first international standard developed mainly by Chinese latex companies and filling the gap of China in this field.
The international standard defines the technical requirements, test rules, test methods, packaging, labeling, transportation and storage of the two major types of meteorological balloons, which are mainly made of natural latex through the immersion method or rotation method and used for exploring metrological elements in the air.
The international standard was proposed at the 58th ISO/TC 45 meeting held in the Netherlands for the first time in October 2010 and officially launched on July 27, 2017. Over the past eight years, China Haohua Chemical attended four international standardization meetings to carry out technical exchanges and communications with experts from Japan, India and the UK and adopted their ideas extensively. Thanks to the persistent efforts of Sun Jianhua (expert), Deng Yizhi (leader) and Yan Juan (member) from the project team of Zhuzhou Research & Design Institute, the standard has won wide attention and extensive support in the international market.
The issuance of the international standard is of great significance. It will promote the development of the meteorological balloon industry, strengthen international exchanges and cooperation between meteorological balloon manufacturers, achieve technical advance and development of the entire meteorological balloon industry, increase the technical content of meteorological balloon products, enhance the competitiveness of China’s meteorological balloon products in the international market, simply the international trading procedures for meteorological balloon products, reduce international trade costs, eliminate the technical barriers in the international market, and provide Chinese enterprises with greater convenience for expanding international trade. The issuance of the standard has improved the international standardization level of China’s latex manufacturing industry and ensured a greater say in China’s international standardization in the field of latex manufacturing.