Technical information

Canada had a different development from the USA, as it was British empire colony

and therefore theoretically subject to the same rules in force in the United

Kingdom. In fact, in 1917 Canada creates an independent normative body, the

Canadian Engineering Standards Association (CESA).

The CESA begins activities in 1920 and immediately expands its influence over

the electric sector publishing the first Canadian Electrical Code (CEC) in 1927,

inspired in the American NEC.

In 1940 the CESA enters the field of product certification and

changes its name to Canadian Standards Association

(CSA).

The history of the European standards has completely different origins, deprived

in fact of the pressure of the insurance companies.

In Europe the standards bodies develop as academic associations: in 1901 British

Standards (BS) was established, in 1906, the International Electrotechnical

Commission (IEC) and in 1909 the Comitato Elettrotecnico Italiano (CEI)

were set up.

Harmonised standards for the electrotechnical sector are issued by the European

Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC), adopted and

translated by the national standards bodies. EN standards are often standards

issued by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) with some

differences.

Harmonised standards for other sectors are issued by the European Committee

Standardisation (CEN) and adopted and translated by the national standards

bodies. EN standards are often standards issued by the International

Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) with some differences.

In USA the standard process is much more complex as it is “voluntary” type of

system; firms, technicians and insurance companies of each sector have

collaborated to produce their own reference standards giving birth to a high

number of standard organisations.

The main problem in a voluntary standard system is co-ordination among the

different standard bodies and this has brought about the settlement of AESC

(American Engineering Standards Committee) in 1918,known as American

National Standard Institute (ANSI) since 1969.This organisation, born from the

collaboration of the most important bodies as IEEE,ASME,ASTM and others,

imposed itself immediately to federal level and along the years it has incorporated

and gathered all similar bodies and became the reference for international

standard associations.

Since 1931 ANSI has participated in IEC works through the U.S. National

Committee (USNC) and in 1946 became one of ISO founder members.

ANSI accredits sector standards bodies and co-ordinates and regulates the creation

of standards through the regulations called “ANSI Essential Requirements”.At

present over 200 standards bodies are accredited, called Standards Developing

Organisations (SDO) and there are over 10,000 recognised standards (if public

and private bodies not accredited by ANSI should be included, other 700

organisations could be added to reach a total of around 93,000 standards).

INTRODUCTION TO NORTH AMERICAN STANDARDS