Hello gents,
I have associates working on the Y14.5 committee, and others doing support work for them, so I've caught tidbits over the last few years. Last I heard, they were targetting 2007, though that could slip again. It is a substantial rewrite with a number of additions, and probably some deletions as well. As I understand it, the Surface Profile will be elevated in importance and better detailed and discussed, which should bring it on a par with Position. I haven't seen the final version of Y14.41, but I believe the reference above was to the circle-U symbol used in the FCF to indicate the distribution of an unequal bilateral surface profile. I seem to remember it coming from the GM Addendum, and I used it for a couple of years; works very nicely. Most instructors have been emphasizing for years that symmetry and concentricity are redundant and a poor way of controlling features, so there's a strong probability they will be eliminated.
Some of the changes to be implemented in this next revision were discussed for the '94 version, but weren't included because they were perceived as too radical a change to incorporate immediately, or they faced too much initial resistance, so they were left or modified for the interim to be overhauled in the next revision.
I've heard that there is still considerable interest & effort in trying to unify with the ISO standard, but there are some fundamental differences that will probably remain (e.g. ISO sets a datum plane as a mathematical mean of readings from the surface, whereas ASME sets it as the plane generated by the three high points on the surface ... ISO is better for CMM inspection, but doesn't reflect how the surface is actually used). As with any standardization effort, there will be some within the ASME-users community that resist change, so that consensus isn't reached and the state-of-the-art doesn't progress as rapidly as it could, and maybe should.
I know this response isn't definitive, but I hope it helps.
Jim Sykes, P.Eng, GDTP-S
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