Standards, Conformity Assessment, and Accreditation for Engineers

The First Major Book to Incorporate New International Guides and Standards Standards, Conformity Assessment, and Accreditation for Engineers discusses conformity assessment and accreditation as defined in a new set of standards by the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC). Written by a licensed professional engineer with more than 25 years of experience, the book brings together material specific to international, regional, national, state, and company levels. The author begins with the terms and definitions of ISO/IEC Guide 2 and ISO/IEC 17000, along with commentary from a US perspective. He reviews the development of standards, the differences between accreditation and certification, and the main international standards organizations. He also presents regional standards, such as those of the European Union; national standards and conformity assessment in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Germany; and the provincial standards and conformity assessment mechanisms of states and provinces. The book provides an engineering perspective on legal issues, such as ASME v. Hydrolevel Corp.; examines the role of government in standards, conformity assessment, and accreditation; and explores standardization at the company level. Providing the tools to easily understand and comply with new standards, this accessible resource not only addresses the technical areas of standardization, but also the legal, economic, management, and education aspects. It covers required vocabulary and gathers references from the substantial yet scattered literature on standards.