The Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Philippine Standards (DTI-BPS) adopts the latest version of the international standard on Paper and board - Determination of grammage, ISO 536:2012 as Philippine National Standard (PNS), PNS ISO 536:2019.

Published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), PNS ISO 536:2019 specifies the method for determining the grammage of paper and board. A grammage is the mass of a unit area of paper or board. It is expressed in grams per square meter. It was approved for adoption upon the recommendation of the DTI-BPS Technical Committee on Paper, Board and Pulps (BPS/TC 21).

BPS/TC 21 is composed of representatives from the Technical Association of Pulp and Paper Industry of the Philippines, Department of Science and Technology – Forest Product Research and Development Institute, University of the Philippines Los Baños – College of Forestry and Natural Resources, Department of Budget and Management – Procurement Service, National Association of Consumers, Inc., Trust International Paper Corp., and Jedaric Chemicals Corp.

This standard will promote common understanding among stakeholders in the paper and board industry.

The DTI-BPS has also updated the following international standards on paper and board previously adopted as Philippine National Standards:

1. PNS ISO 11476:2019 (ISO published 2016) Paper and board – Determination of CIE whiteness, C/2° (indoor illumination conditions)
2. PNS ISO 1974:2019 Paper and board (ISO published 2012) – Determination of tearing resistance – Elmendorf method
3. PNS ISO 287:2019 (ISO published 2017)  Paper and board – Determination of moisture content of a lot – Oven-drying method 
4. PNS ISO 5636-3:2019 (ISO published 2013) Paper and board – Determination of air permeance (medium range) – Part 3: Bendtsen method
5. PNS ISO 6588-2:2019 (ISO published 2012) Paper, board and pulps – Determinaton of pH of aqueous extracts – Part 2: Hot extraction
6. PNS ISO 8791-2:2019 (ISO published 2013) Paper and board – Determination of roughness/smoothness (air leak methods) – Part 2: Bendtsen method
7. PNS ISO 2144:2019 (ISO published 2015) Paper, board and pulps – Determination of residue (ash) on ignition at 900 degrees C

The DTI-BPS is the National Standards Body of the Philippines. It is the country’s member to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Copies of the standards mentioned above may be secured for a minimal fee from the DTI-BPS Standards Data Center at (02) 791.3127 and through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..