Pierre Hirtt, founder and chief technology officer of Hitec Luxembourg S.A., has received during the June 2014 meeting in Toronto, Canada the ASTM International Award of Merit from Committee D24 on Carbon Black.

The ASTM Technical Committee D24 is made up of approximately 60 Industry representatives and is in charge of standardization aspects of the carbon black industry, a key supplier to the rubber, tire, plastics and printing sector. The Committee D24 is one of more than 160 technical fora of ASTM International (www.astm.org).

The Award of Merit was established in 1949 by the ASTM International Board of Directors and is the highest society award granted to an individual member for distinguished service and outstanding participation in ASTM International committee activities. Recipients also receive the honorary title of “Fellow”.

The committee D24 honored Pierre Hirtt with the award and its accompanying title of “Fellow” for his work in advancing the technical quality and capability of carbon black through the development of international standards. An ASTM member since 1994, Pierre Hirtt is active on multiple D24 subcommittees, serving as chairman of D24.51 on Carbon Black Pellet Properties and as secretary of D24.11 on Carbon Black Structure. He received the D24 Distinguished Service Award in 2003.

The Luxembourg national Pierre HIRTT, holder of a Master degree in Physics and a Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering, has specifically contributed to the work on carbon black pellet properties, as well as structure quantification by oil absorption and by the new method of void-volume testing.

Hitec Luxembourg S.A. is offering ASTM compliant specific standard test equipment (http://www.Hitec.lu/index.php/products/rubber-industry-testing). These are used in the carbon black quality control and materials development. The company’s know how lies in the concept, design and in-house manufacturing of such equipment. The Luxembourg based company is a global market player, serving over 100 customers in more than 30 countries around the world, among them all major producers and users of carbon black.