Standards and Codes

Abstract

In coming up with a design that meets user needs in the best way possible, tradeoffs must be made amongst the requirements of function, safety, timeliness, cost, ergonomics, the environment, and aesthetics. Established standards and codes help to provide the design engineer with a basis for making judgments such as “how safe is safe enough” in a professionally acceptable manner. The application, interpretation, and development of appropriate standards, codes, and certifications are issues of increasing importance to design engineers, especially with the more global approach to design and manufacture. Not only do the local requirements vary widely from place to place, but also so do user expectations and attitudes concerning the performance of products and equipment. Such factors can create unanticipated delays and additional design costs that are sufficient to jeopardize the future of a complete project, as shown by the example in Hales and Poczynok (2001), especially when combined with cultural and language misunderstandings. This chapter on standards and codes is included simply to highlight a few important issues and to provide a useful list of international contacts for basic information. The massive task of trying to assemble a coherent picture of what standards and codes exist in different countries, and how they all relate to each other, is something that really was not practicable until the Internet became a reality, but now it is possible to get a good overview by visiting the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Website and those of the various organizations listed. For this reason the list has been updated to include the Website address for each contact, both within the text and electronically on the CD accompanying the book.