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What
is the IEC?
IEC Members
IEC Technical Committees
IEC is short for
International Electrotechnical Commission
The IEC develops
international
standards for all electrical, electronic and related
technologies and for renewable energy. It is a private
organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
The unit of IEC
membership is the National Committee (NC),
the national standards organization for electricity and electronics in
each country. Depending upon the political and economic traditions of
the nation, NCs may be private organizations, public/private
partnerships or government agencies.
However, NCs are
required to represent the interests of and allow active participation by
all electrotechnical interests in the
country, including manufacturers, vendors, consumers, governments,
professional societies and trade associations. A representative sample
of the NCs is listed below:
Standards are developed
by the 179 technical committees (TC) and
subcommittees (SC) which reflect the general areas of interest for
electrotechnical industries. For example,
TC 111
handles environmental regulation and reporting issues. These committees
form working groups (WG) and
project teams (PT) with
specific areas of
expertise. Approximately 10,000 experts worldwide (appointed by their
respective NCs) serve on over 700 teams to develop consensus and
draft technical documents.
Completed technical
documents are submitted to the National Committees (full members only)
for approval as international standards.
Voting includes the option to submit comments for the committee's
further consideration. Depending upon the level of consensus achieved,
technical documents are published as one of the following types:
|
Types of IEC
Publications |
|
International Standard |
Normative
standard adopted by full consensus among the IEC membership;
its adoption by any government is entirely voluntary
|
|
Technical Specification |
Normative
standard published without full consensus among IEC membership;
technical development of the subject is often still underway |
|
Publically Available Specification |
Normative
document approved by simple majority at the Technical Committee
level; it represents a consensus among experts and is designed
to bring the work of industry consortia into the realm of the
IEC |
|
Technical Report |
Descriptive document approved by simple majority at the
Technical Committee level; informative in purpose, it presents a
summary of relevant product data |
|
Industry Technical Agreement |
Normative or
informative document developed outside the IEC structure;
similar to a de facto industry standard, it is used primarily by
fast-moving technology sectors to specify the parameters of new
products or services |
IEC standards
and publications are sold
on their website at
www.iec.ch.
Distribution is 100% electronic.
This summary is
intended to give you an easy-to-understand overview and does not
constitute legal advice. The actual standard in the original language
should be reviewed and used for all business, legal, and product
compliance purposes.
If
you need assistance in managing your company's response to the myriad
environmental regulations, including materials data reporting, we stand
ready to help you. Please call 972-679-8996 or
email
Mike for a quick and personalized response.
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RSJ
Technical Consulting
PO Box 867705, Plano, Texas 75086
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