DIN EN IEC 81346-1:2024-07

The standards in the IEC 81346-x series describe general principles for the structuring of systems including structuring of the information about systems. Based on these principles, rules and guidance are given for the formulation of unambiguous reference designations. They are used for the consistent identification of objects, the attribution of information and associated components, and are applicable in any system and industry, in all technical fields. A reference designation labelled at a component is the key to find information about that object among different kinds of documents. Objects in a system can be structured hierarchically according to aspects of their embedded information; Part 1 of the series of standards defines a hierarchy of the "composition" of these aspects according to rules and presents implementation examples. The principles are general and are applicable to all technical areas (for example mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, construction engineering, process engineering). They can be used for systems based on different technologies or for systems combining several technologies. DIN EN IEC 81346-1 is designated as a horizontal basis for technical committees; in this respect, restrictions may arise regarding the concrete implementation of reference identification in product-specific standards. The standard differs from DIN EN 81346-1:2010-05 as follows: a) the scope includes a reference to IEC Guide 108, as this is a horizontal publication; b) alignment with IEC 81346-2:2019 and ISO 81346-12:2018; c) introduction of the type aspect; d) introduction of an information model for the reference identification system; e) introduction of an information model for the framework of a reference identification system that complies with International Standard 81346; f) introduction of recommendations for metadata for managing design structures; g) introduction of rules and methods for determining relationships between objects; h) introduction of requirements for the development of sector-specific parts of the 81346 series of International Standards; i) introduction of requirements for the integration of sub-objects into object structures; j) introduction of recommendations for documenting the application of the 81346 series of International Standards; k) introduction of a definition of the new terms used; l) addition of new rules and amendment of existing rules; m) comments on rules have been converted into normative text as "Comment on rule nn". Due to the general application of DIN EN IEC 81346-1 in a wide variety of areas of technical culture, there are no outstanding examples. In part two of the series of standards known examples of applications are listed in tabular form for the assignment of reference identifiers in a similar sense.