ISO/IEC 81346-1 Series
ISO/IEC 81346-1:2022
The ISO/IEC 81346-1 is a standard developed by ISO and IEC titled “Structuring principles and reference designations – Part 1: Basic rules”. The latest version of the standard was published in January 2022.
It has its roots in the IEC 60113-2 standard from 1971 and has been updated at regular intervals ever since. Historically, the publication number changed in 2009 when ISO and IEC agreed to create one common standard series for the designation of technical systems. This meant that the IEC 61346:1996 standard became the ISO/IEC 81346-1 we have today.
The Basic Rules & Principles
The ISO/IEC 81346-1 provides the basic rules and principles that should be applied throughout the whole 81346 standard series.
A fundamental premise in ISO/IEC 81346-1 is that everything is about systems.
Guidelines are given through the basic rules and principles on how to formulate and identify unambiguous objects in technical systems and how to apply the different aspects and the structuring of systems properly.
Take a look at the videos we specially have created on how you structure systems and deal with aspects.
The Fundamentals
The Structuring
The basic principle of a reference designation system deals with structures. For a system to be efficiently specified, designed, manufactured, serviced, or operated, the system and the information about the system are divided into part-of-relations.
This successive subdivision divided into parts is how you structure objects and determine systems and subsystems in ISO/IEC 81346-1.
Part-of Relation
A part-of-relation identifies the relationship between an object and its constituent parts. It enables a structured approach to naming and referencing objects and their constituent parts within a system. By following a structured approach, we can handle any system design with a high complexity level and decompose systems more easily.
The Aspects
The ISO/IEC 81346-1:2022 applies aspects to sort out and monitor the technical information of objects. The 81346-1:2022 defines four basic aspects that can be used with the 81346 standard series.
Each aspect is represented by a prefix, which indicates what aspect is used in the RDS syntax (e.g., “=B1=BA1”). A fifth aspect was implemented in 2022 and is user-defined. The “#” prefix represents this.
By applying an aspect when structuring, one can only see the information relevant to this aspect, and any other information must be obtained in another aspect. The overall purpose is to create a clear technical view of the system of interest in each aspect.
Through aspects, you view an automotive production, power plant, oil platform, wind turbine, etc., from a functional, product, location, etc. angle, which enables one to navigate even complex technical systems by having a clear technical view.