Ar in metal is present as gaseous voids which affect the material performance; most notably the mechanical properties. In agreement with literature findings, our investigation confirms this for 316L steel produced by PM HIP. Detecting the Ar is possible by microscopy, but more reliably with inert gas fusion followed by gas chromatography or mass spectrometry. The users of these techniques have accumulated experience over the years and consider them robust, especially in terms of distinguishing a presence or absence of Ar. Since consensus has emerged, a standard is now possible. We propose firstly a national standard. It may be used as a quality agreement between the purchaser and provider of the PM HIP service. The proposed standard considers the distinctiveness of PM HIP. For example that Ar tends to segregate in PM HIP cans. In fact, consensus has also been reached on how to reliably sample from PM HIP cans. © European Powder Metallurgy Association (EPMA).