28.1 INTRODUCTION

Standards are documents on which agreement has been reached, normally by consensus, that contain specifications or criteria to be used to ensure that materials, products, processes, tests, or services are suitable for their intended purpose.

Standards apply to virtually everything in the world today. The average person is not even aware of their existence, but life would not be the same without them. Engineers, computer scientists, and other scientists, however, are acutely aware of standards and their impact on the work they perform. Development of many of the original standards associated with electrotechnology was a slow process. The products, tests, or specifications being standardized were often in use in industry and had, in reality, become de facto standards before the standards that referred to them were written and approved. In general, most of the standards written were not mandatory, and it was voluntary for users to apply them. In some instances, these voluntary standards became part of government regulations, were adopted by government agencies, or were mandated by companies in specifications. When these types of events occurred, compliance with a specific standard became mandatory. Early standards also became regional to varying degrees. For example, the United States had its electric power standards and European countries had their own electric power standards. Although the two sets of standards had many similarities, there were significant differences between them. Overall, although there were some complaints, the standards...