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Harmonised technical standards to be publicly available in EU

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switchabl:
A bit of an update on this one. I wanted to see how this would work in practice, so I formally requested access to several harmonised standards through the EU Commission (more specifically, DG GROW). Including the latest version of forum favourite EN IEC 61010-2-033 :-DMM .

So far, they haven't said no but they keep stalling. Ordinarily, they would have to either provide the requested documents or reasons for refusal within 15 working days. The deadline can be extended by another 15 working days in "exceptional cases", which they have done, citing ongoing consultations within the Commission. They have now informed me that they can't meet the extended deadline either.

I guess they still haven't fully figured out how they are going to deal with this. If nothing happens, I still have a couple of options to escalate my case and keep it moving (short of taking it to court). We'll see.

EPAIII:
Who needs them?

Have you ever actually cut a thread on a lathe? And it HAD to be compatible with all the others of the same basic description that are out there. The details of thread forms are fairly well available, but by the time you finish researching and UNDERSTANDING all of them, for JUST ONE TYPE OF THREAD, your head will be spinning. I know, I did work from the published standards a time or two and it is not easy. Whenever I can I just rough out the thread form and then use a die or tap of the appropriate class of fit to finish it. There are times when spending even $50 or $100 on a die or tap that will only be used once is a great choice to make.

And that's just thread forms, which are fairly simple. There are so many other mechanical standards.

Have I spent money on mechanical standards? You bet I have. I have not one, but three copies of Machinery's Handbook, two paper and ink and one in PDF format on my computer. And I have additional printed books with standards in them. But there are standards that I have never had copies of. And probably never will unless I have a paying job that requires them.

But this is an electronic board. Electronic standards? Yup, they are out there. I spent over 45 years working as a TV engineer and had to know and follow things like the FCC Rules and Regulations. Most of the TV stations where I worked subscribed to a service that provided them in a thick binder and periodic updates that had to be inserted in it. That cost some money, but I think the FCC itself published them for cost but keeping their binder was more difficult and time consuming.

And electrical standards; I do have a copy of the US NEC. It is out of date but I needed it for a project so I originally bought it new. A professional electrician would probably need to buy a new copy each year or two.

There's a tremendous amount of published standards and YES, they are needed and USED.




--- Quote from: Benta on March 05, 2024, 09:02:59 pm ---
--- Quote from: themadhippy on March 05, 2024, 05:26:08 pm ---Interesting,the short form link didnt make that clear. As  tom66 says it would be nice if british standards were to follow suit, little chance of that happening.

--- End quote ---

Who needs them, unless you're still using Whitworth threads and measuring speed in furlongs-per-fortnight.

--- End quote ---

EPAIII:
In the past, over my career, there have been many times that I needed a "published" standard. Many, dare I say MOST of those times, the length of that standard was hundreds of pages and the cost of that standard was hundreds of dollars, even over $1000 in some cases. This at a time when a hard cover book cost around $10 and even college texts around $50. The authors of the standard or more likely the company they worked for and which OWNED the copyright, were just plain greedy. They had it and if you wanted/needed a copy, you had to pay THEIR price.

And many times I did only need one or two pages of those hundreds and hundreds. Explaining that to a cost conscious manager can be difficult, to say the least.

There were times when I asked friends who worked for companies that were direct competitors of mine for a few copied pages. TV engineers were usually a friendly bunch because you never knew when you would need a favor in return. Of course, management didn't understand this either, even when it directly benefited them.




--- Quote from: coppice on March 05, 2024, 10:33:02 pm ---
--- Quote from: mendip_discovery on March 05, 2024, 07:33:58 pm ---Having to pay >£100 for a 1960s standard that is just A5 and 10 pages is just cheeky. I can understand covering the costs of the creation but it does seem like a money-printing system with the added benefit of keeping the riff raff out.

--- End quote ---
Oh come on. They are never just 10 pages. The body of the document might be just half a page, specifying just a couple of measurements, but there will be 10s of pages of title, and preamble, and definition of terms and other waffle. :)

--- End quote ---

Monkeh:

--- Quote from: EPAIII on April 26, 2024, 06:42:30 am ---Who needs them?



--- Quote from: Benta on March 05, 2024, 09:02:59 pm ---
--- Quote from: themadhippy on March 05, 2024, 05:26:08 pm ---Interesting,the short form link didnt make that clear. As  tom66 says it would be nice if british standards were to follow suit, little chance of that happening.

--- End quote ---

Who needs them, unless you're still using Whitworth threads and measuring speed in furlongs-per-fortnight.

--- End quote ---

--- End quote ---

That was just Benta taking a cheap shot at British Standards, not questioning the need for standards. Of course, he's likely never read any British Standards, nor is he aware how many of them drive ISO and IEC standards..

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