It’s going over "old" ground but I have some issues with the cost of keeping up to date, with steel specifications. If I had to buy a copy of every international standard to cover all the grades we receive enquiries for, then I would need a turnover the size of Microsoft to support our library.
Since standards are important to ensure products meet safety benchmarks, you would think that it would be in the interest of the governing bodies to make them cheap and accessible. Wrong!
At one time we had basically two standards for steel strip in the UK, if you got a copy of BS1449 and BS4360, you were flying. As they were changed infrequently it was easy to keep up to speed. Now you need a pile of publications that would require a medium sized forest felled to supply the paper!
But, we are in the age of the internet now; we have the “information super-highway”, no costly paper, no expensive distribution costs, no wholesaler and retailer “mark-ups” no financing unsold stock. Put the lot on a CD or make it available for download and it will cost “next to nowt”! Wrong its’ more bloody expensive now than ever. I cannot believe how the standards agencies and distributors can justify the extortionate prices they charge.
Anyway I am going to put as much information as I can collect on to our website at Steelstrip Resources, I’ve made a start here, and it’s free, gratis. I will add more as I get time.
Oh I have decided I want a guestbook, I don’t know why, but I do. If anyone can point me in the direction of a simple script, would appreciate it.
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