Loudon, Tennessee -- The Polyurethane Foam Association (PFA) awarded Dr Stuart Watson its autumn 2012 Herman Stone Technical Excellence Award.
Watson's presentation on 'Precision and Bias of the CertiPUR-US Test Method for Volatile Organic Compounds,' scored highest among the seven papers presented during the PFA autumn meeting in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Watson, an industry consultant and board member of the Alliance for Flexible Polyurethane Foam, was formerly senior vice president of the Carpenter Co., for whom he worked twenty-three years.
Watson's paper focused on analysing the consistency and reproducibility, precision, and possible bias of the small chamber test method for testing volatile organic compounds in flexible polyurethane foam that is part of the CertiPUR-US protocol. Analysis of the test method revealed that the data were normally distributed and that no statistically significant difference between testing chambers or operators existed, and the test could reproducibly distinguish between the high and low emission samples.
PFA technical presentations are scored by attendees.
Watson's paper was co-authored with Dr Doug Sullivan, executive director of the Alliance for Flexible Polyurethane Foam which administers the CertiPUR-US foam certification program.
A CD with all seven presentations can be ordered in the meetings section of the PFA website -- www.pfa.org.
The PFA's mission is to educate customers and other groups about flexible polyurethane foam, providing facts on environmental, health and safety issues related to flexible polyurethane foam production.
The PFA also provides generic technical information on the performance of flexible polyurethane foam in consumer and industrial products.
"
