The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard is essential for quality and risk management, helps researchers understand the value of innovation, and allows manufacturers to produce products of consistent quality and performance. International IEC standards are always used by technical experts.
In the following, we will examine the IEC standard.
What is the IEC standard?
In 1881, the first International Electricity Congress was held at the International Electricity Exhibition in Paris, and at the same congress it was agreed to create an international system for electric and magnetic units. After that and at the Paris International Electricity Congress in 1900,
Discussions began between the British Institute of Electrical Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and other groups regarding the need for a commission.
Six years later, IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) was founded and inaugurated on June 26, 1906. Originally based in London, the commission moved to its current headquarters in Geneva in 1948.
IEC standard stands for International Electrotechnical Commission and is considered one of the most important and reliable international electricity standards. IEC is an international electrotechnical commission affiliated to the international organization ISO, which develops standards in the field of the electrical industry. Evaluation and adaptation of products and installation methods in all electrical technologies. The IEC standard is widely used in the production of explosion-proof equipment as well as precision instruments.
The IEC standard is approved by certification bodies:
- BSI (England)
- CSA (Canada)
- UL and ANSI/INCITS (USA)
- SABS (South Africa)
- Australian standard
- SPC/GB (China)
- DIN (Germany)
In what fields is the IEC standard used?
International standards under this organization for all electrical, electronic and related technologies
It is jointly known as “Electrotechnology” and is prepared and published.
The IEC standard covers a wide range of technologies, including:
- making electricity
- Transfer and distribution to household appliances and office equipment
- Semiconductors
- Optical fiber
- Batteries
- Solar Energy
- Nanotechnology and marine energy
- Electronic
- Magnetism and Electromagnetism
- Electroacoustics
- Multimedia
- Telecommunications and medical technology
- Electromagnetic compatibility
- Performance measurement and evaluation
- Reliability
- Design and development
- Safety and environment
The IEC standard governs four global conformity assessment systems
They confirm that the equipment, system or parts are in accordance with its international standards.
IEC has been effective in preparing and distributing necessary standards for measurement units, especially Gauss, Hertz, and Weber.
IEC works closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
In addition, it works with several major standards development organizations, including IEEE, with which it signed a cooperative agreement in 2002.
IEC member countries
Currently, 86 IEC member countries and 87 other countries participate in the programs of the affiliated companies of this organization. Today, IEC is the leading international organization in the field of activity and
Its standards are approved as national standards by its members.
This work is done by about 10,000 electrical and electronics experts active in this industry.
Government, universities, laboratories and other people interested in these issues are done.
| Country | code | IEC member | Date | website | p_member | o_member |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 China | CN | Full Member | 1957 | sac.gov.cn | 191 | 1 |
 Germany | DE | Full Member | 1951 | dke.de | 190 | 1 |
 Japan | JP | Full Member | 1910 | jisc.go.jp | 187 | 4 |
 Italy | IT | Full Member | 1907 | ceinorme.it | 176 | 15 |
 United Kingdom | GB | Full Member | 1906 | bsigroup.com | 173 | 17 |
 United States of AmericaGeneral InformationTC/SC MembershipTC/SC SecretariatVotes | US | Full Member | 1907 | ansi.orgusnc-iec | 171 | 1 |
 France | FR | Full Member | 1907 | afnor.org | 169 | 23 |
 Korea, Republic of | KR | Full Member | 1963 | kats.go.kr | 159 | 24 |
 Switzerland | CH | Full Member | 1911 | electrosuisse.ch | 142 | 33 |
 Sweden | SE | Full Member | 1907 | elstandard.se | 135 | 55 |
 Russian Federation | RU | Full Member | 1911 | gost.ru | 133 | 55 |
 Belgium | BE | Full Member | 1909 | ceb-bec.be | 129 | 62 |
 Finland | FI | Full Member | 1949 | sesko.fi | 124 | 65 |
 Netherlands | NL | Full Member | 1911 | nen.nl | 124 | 49 |
 India | IN | Full Member | 1929 | bis.org.in | 119 | 55 |
 Spain | ES | Full Member | 1907 | une.org | 119 | 71 |
 Austria | AT | Full Member | 1910 | ove.at | 117 | 63 |
 Denmark | DK | Full Member | 1908 | ds.dk | 116 | 64 |
 Canada | CA | Full Member | 1908 | scc.ca | 108 | 1 |
 Norway | NO | Full Member | 1912 | nek.no | 95 | 83 |
 Australia | AU | Full Member | 1927 | standards.org.au | 84 | 43 |
 South Africa | ZA | Full Member | 1939 | sabs.co.zasanc | 74 | 61 |
 Portugal | PT | Full Member | 1929 | ipq.pt | 68 | 69 |
 Czech Republic | CZ | Full Member | 1993 | unmz.cz | 62 | 125 |
 Ireland | IE | Full Member | 1974 | nsai.ie | 57 | 68 |
 Poland | PL | Full Member | 1923 | pkn.pl | 52 | 135 |
 Iran | IR | Full Member | 2014 | isdportal.isiri.gov.ir | 47 | 112 |
 Brazil | BR | Full Member | 1952 | cobei.org.br | 44 | 74 |
 Israel | IL | Full Member | 1951 | sii.org.il | 44 | 62 |
 Malaysia | MY | Full Member | 1990 | jsm.gov.my | 41 | 56 |
 Türkiye | TR | Full Member | 1956 | tse.org.tr | 40 | 67 |
 Hungary | HU | Full Member | 1948 | mszt.hu | 35 | 118 |
 Mexico | MX | Full Member | 1993 | economia.gob.mx | 35 | 58 |
 Egypt | EG | Full Member | 1930 | moere.gov.egiec | 34 | 59 |
 Romania | RO | Full Member | 1927 | asro.ro | 33 | 135 |
 Saudi Arabia | SA | Full Member | 1998 | saso.gov.sa | 29 | 21 |
 Thailand | TH | Full Member | 1955 | tisi.go.th | 28 | 57 |
 Nigeria | NG | Full Member | 2006 | son.gov.ng | 25 | |
 Pakistan | PK | Full Member | 1959 | psqca.com.pk | 25 | 49 |
 Indonesia | ID | Full Member | 1965 | bsn.go.id | 22 | 46 |
 Singapore | SG | Full Member | 1990 | enterprisesg.gov.sg | 21 | 56 |
 Slovenia | SI | Full Member | 1992 | sist.si | 21 | 73 |
 Greece | GR | Full Member | 1930 | elot.gr | 15 | 90 |
 New Zealand | NZ | Full Member | 1979 | standards.govt.nz | 15 | 110 |
 Algeria | DZ | Full Member | 2008 | ianor.dz | 14 | |
 Serbia | RS | Full Member | 1936 | iss.rs | 13 | 133 |
 Philippines, Rep. of the | PH | Full Member | 2008 | bps.dti.gov.ph | 12 | 26 |
 Croatia | HR | Full Member | 1993 | hzn.hr | 11 | 70 |
 Ukraine | UA | Full Member | 1993 | uas.org.ua | 11 | 153 |
 United Arab Emirates | AE | Full Member | 2010 | moiat.gov.ae | 10 | 2 |
 Argentina | AR | Full Member | 1913 | aea.org.ar | 6 | 22 |
 Kenya | KE | Associate Member | 2005 | kebs.org | 6 | 1 |
 Iraq | IQ | Full Member | 2009 | cosqc.gov.iqenhome.aspx | 5 | 2 |
 Slovakia | SK | Full Member | 1993 | unms.sk | 5 | 94 |
 Côte D’Ivoire | CI | Associate Member | 2018 | codinorm.ci | 4 | |
 Ethiopia | ET | Associate Member | 2020 | ethiostandards.org | 4 | |
 Ghana | GH | Associate Member | 2019 | gsa.gov.gh | 4 | 1 |
 Kazakhstan | KZ | Associate Member | 2004 | memst.kz | 4 | |
 Lithuania | LT | Associate Member | 1996 | lsd.lt | 4 | |
 Luxembourg | LU | Full Member | 1992 | portail-qualite.lu | 4 | 9 |
 Morocco | MA | Associate Member | 2010 | https:imanor.gov.ma | 4 | |
 Tunisia | TN | Associate Member | 2000 | innorpi.tn | 4 | |
 Belarus | BY | Full Member | 1993 | gosstandart.gov.by | 3 | 90 |
 Chile | CL | Full Member | 2010 | cornelec.cl | 3 | 6 |
 Colombia | CO | Full Member | 2000 | icontec.org | 3 | 12 |
 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea | KP | Associate Member | 2013 | 3 | ||
 Estonia | EE | Associate Member | 1995 | evs.ee | 3 | |
 Georgia | GE | Associate Member | 2010 | geostm.ge | 3 | |
 Jordan | JO | Associate Member | 2010 | jsmo.gov.jo | 3 | |
 North Macedonia | MK | Associate Member | 2005 | isrsm.gov.mk | 3 | |
 Peru | PE | Full Member | 2017 | inacal.gob.pe | 3 | 1 |
 Vietnam | VN | Associate Member | 2002 | tcvn.gov.vn | 3 | |
 Albania | AL | Associate Member | 2009 | dps.gov.al | 2 | |
 Bahrain | BH | Associate Member | 2009 | moic.gov.bh | 2 | |
 Malta | MT | Associate Member | 2000 | mccaa.org.mt | 2 | |
 Sri Lanka | LK | Associate Member | 2006 | nsf.ac.lk | 2 | |
 Bangladesh | BD | Associate Member | 2018 | bsti.gov.bd | 1 | |
 Bulgaria | BG | Full Member | 1958 | bds-bg.org | 1 | 142 |
 Cyprus | CY | Associate Member | 1995 | cys.org.cy | 1 | |
 Iceland | IS | Associate Member | 1998 | stadlar.is | 1 | 2 |
 Moldova, Republic of | MD | Associate Member | 2012 | standard.md | 1 | |
 Qatar | QA | Full Member | 2008 | 1 | 2 | |
 Uganda | UG | Associate Member | 2020 | unbs.go.ug | 1 | |
 Bosnia & Herzegovina | BA | Associate Member | 1997 | https:isbih.gov.baen | 1 | |
 Kuwait | KW | Full Member | 2016 | pai.gov.kw | 6 | |
 Latvia | LV | Associate Member | 1995 | lvs.lv | ||
 Montenegro | ME | Associate Member | 2009 | isme.me | ||
 Oman | OM | Full Member | 2010 | 26 | ||
 Uzbekistan | UZ | Associate Member | 2023 | standart.uz |
IEC standard commission members
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a non-profit, quasi-governmental organization.
IEC members are national committees and appoint experts and representatives from industry, government bodies, associations and academies for technical assessment and conformity assessment of IEC.
Some NCs or agencies are only public sector, others are a combination of public and private sector, and some are only private sector.
IEC standards are made up of members called national committees.
Each NC representative in these committees independently protects the electrotechnical interests of his country in the IEC.
- Manufacturers
- Providers
- Distributors and sellers
- Consumers and users
- All levels of government organizations
- Professional and trade associations
- Standard developers from national standards bodies
Naming method in IEC standard
IEC standards have numbers in the range of 60000-79999 and their titles look like IEC 60417
Assigns graphic symbols for use in equipment.
Following the Dresden agreement with CENELEC, The number of old IEC standards changed in 1997 by adding 60,000 to the new format.
Due to continuous cooperation with other related organizations, The IEC standards organization has developed standards jointly with ISO.
In the IEC standard, the codes on the equipment are divided into four parts:
- EX: The sign and symbol of explosion-proof equipment in the IEC standard
- Protecyion Types: This part includes subgroups i, d, p, e and…
- Gas group: divided into two parts: gas group and gas group || is divided Gas group || It has subgroups A, B, C.
- Thermal class T: from 85 to 450 degrees Celsius.
List of some IEC standards
- IEC60027: Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology
- IEC 62271-1: for alternating current switchgear and control
- IEC60041: Field acceptance tests to determine the hydraulic performance of hydraulic turbines, storage pumps and pump turbines
- IEC 60947: Specification for low-voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies
- IEC 61869: Transformers
- IEC60045: Steam turbines
- IEC60050: International Electrotechnical Vocabulary
- IEC60052: Voltage measurement using standard air gaps
- IEC60059: Current IEC standard rating
- IEC60064: Tungsten filament lamps for indoor and similar general lighting purposes (performance requirements)
- IEC60065: Audio, video and similar electronic devices (safety requirements)
- IEC60067: Standard for dimensions and sizes of electronic valves and pipes
- IEC60261: Sealing test for pipe and waveguide assemblies under pressure
- IEC60263: Scale and size for drawing frequency profiles and polar diagrams
- IEC60268: Audio system equipment