August 2015
|
World Coal
|
27
SUITABLE
AND SAFE
SAMPLING
Collecting coal samples can be
accomplished in a variety of
ways – some less than ideal.
Paul Reagan, Sampling
Associates International, USA,
examines the relative effectiveness
of the various methods and
the specific limitations of coal
sampling, as well as introducing a
new sampling device that may be
useful in certain situations.
I
n many commercial coal sales transactions, the
contractual language addressing the sampling method
simply states that the samples will be taken “in
accordance with ASTM (or ISO) standards”, without
any additional specificity. It is one objective of this article
to inform the reader that this is a mistake: understanding
the effectiveness of the various sample collection methods
is crucial to clarifying what method is to be used in the
