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This part of ISO 11648 establishes the basic methods for sampling particulate materials in bulk (e.g. ores, mineral concentrates, coal, industrial chemicals in powder or granular form, and agricultural products such as grain) from moving streams and stationary situations, including stopped-belt sampling, to provide samples for measuring one or more variables in an unbiased manner and with a known degree of precision. The variables are measured by chemical analysis and/or physical testing. These sampling methods are applicable to materials that require inspection to verify compliance with product specifications or contract settlements, to calculate the value of the lot mean of a measurable quantity as a basis for settlement between trading partners, or to estimate the set of variables and variances that describes a system or procedure.

Stopped-belt sampling is the reference method against which other sampling procedures are compared. Dynamic sampling from moving streams is the preferred method whereby a sampling device (called a cutter) is passed through the stream of the particulate material. A complete cross-section of the moving stream can be removed as a primary increment at a conveyor belt transfer point with a falling-stream cutter, or removed from the belt with a cross-belt cutter. In both cases, the selection and extraction of increments can be described by a one-dimensional dynamic sampling model.

Static sampling of bulk material from stationary situations, such as stockpiles, rail or road wagons, the holds of ships and barges, silos, and even comparatively small volumes, is used only where sampling from moving streams is not possible. Such sampling from three-dimensional lots is prone to systematic errors, because some parts of the lot usually have reduced or no chance of being collected for the gross sample. This is in violation of the requirement of the three-dimensional sampling model that all parts have an equal probability of being collected. The procedures described in this part of ISO 11648 for sampling from stationary lots of bulk particulate material with implements such as mechanical augers merely minimize some of the systematic sampling errors.

For these reasons, this part of ISO 11648 is primarily concerned with dynamic sampling from moving streams or stopped-belt static sampling from conveyor belts and is based on a sampling model for one-dimensional lots. Nonetheless, procedures for static sampling from three-dimensional lots are provided where these situations cannot be avoided.

This part of ISO 11648 is concerned with the methods of sampling particulate materials in bulk with the objective of obtaining unbiased measurements of one or more variables of the material with a known degree of precision. However, it does not provide methods for deciding whether to accept or reject a bulk material lot with specified degrees of risk of accepting a sub-standard lot, or of rejecting what is in fact an acceptable lot. These latter procedures are usually called acceptance sampling or sampling inspection methods.