International Classification for Standards

International Classification for Standards (ICS) is an international classification system for technical standards. It is designed to cover every economic sector and virtually every activity of the humankind where technical standards may be used.

Developed and maintained by the International Organization for Standardization, the ICS is intended to be a continuous work in progress and is updated when necessary. The latest edition of the ICS can be downloaded free of charge from the ISO web site.

Anyone may submit a proposal for modifications or additions to the ICS.

Purpose

The ICS serves as a structure for catalogues and databases of technical standards and other normative documents, and as a basis for standing-order systems for international, regional and national standards.

Classification principles

The ICS uses an hierarchical classification, which consists of three nested levels called "fields" (Level 1), "groups" (Level 2) and "sub-groups" (Level 3). Each "field" is subdivided into "groups", which are further divided into "sub-groups".

All classification levels are designated by a classification code (called "notation") and a title. The notation is a set of Arabic numerals.

Top-level items, which have no parent levels, use a two-digit notation, for example::"43 ROAD VEHICLE ENGINEERING"

The notations for "groups" and "sub-groups" include the parent-level notations. The example below shows a notation for Sub-Group 20 (Level 3), which belongs to Group 040 (Level 2) in Field 43 (Level 1). :"43.040.20 Lighting, signaling and warning devices"

Level 1 (Fields)

A "field" is the first level in the International Classification for Standards. It may represent one or a combination of the following:
*A sector of the economy such as agriculture, mining, construction or the packaging industry;
*A technology such as telecommunications or food processing;
*An activity such as environment protection, safety assurance and protection of public health;
*A field of science such as mathematics or astronomy.

At present the classification includes 40 "fields".

:01 General. Terminology. Standardization. Documentation

:03 Sociology. Services. Formation And Management Of Business Entities. Administration. Transportation

:07 Mathematics. Natural Sciences

:11 Health Care Technology

:13 Environment. Health. Safety

:17 Metrology And Measurement. Physical Phenomena

:19 Testing

:21 Mechanical Systems And Components For General Use

:23 Fluid Systems And Components For General Use

:25 Manufacturing Engineering

:27 Energy And Thermal Engineering

:29 Electrical Engineering

:31 Electronics

:33 Telecommunications. Audio And Video Engineering

:35 Information Technology. Office Machines

:37 Image Technology

:39 Precision Mechanics. Jewelry

:43 Road Vehicle Engineering

:45 Railway Engineering

:47 Shipbuilding And Marine Structures

:49 Aircraft And Space Vehicle Engineering

:53 Hoisting And Conveying Equipment. Materials Handling

:55 Packaging And Distribution Of Goods

:59 Textile And Leather Technology

:61 Clothing Industry

:65 Agriculture

:67 Food Technology

:71 Chemical And Petrochemical Technology

:73 Mining And Minerals

:75 Petroleum, Natural Gas, And Related Technologies

:77 Metallurgy

:79 Wood Technology

:81 Glass And Ceramics Industries

:83 Rubber, Asbestos, And Plastics Industries

:85 Pulp And Paper Technology

:87 Paint And Coating Industries

:91 Construction. Building Materials

:93 Civil Engineering

:95 Military Engineering

:97 Household And Commercial Equipment. Recreation. Sports

Level 2 (Groups)

The ICS second level, the "group", is a subdivision of the "field".

Level 3 (Sub-Groups)

"Sub-groups" are used in the ICS to subdivide "groups" into subjects that pertain to a particular aspect of the subject covered by a given "group". Regardless of the subject, virtually all "groups" include a "sub-group" No. 01 that covers the complete subject of the respective "group". In addition, most of the "groups" contain a "sub-group" No. 99 for standards on subjects which do not correspond either to the subjects of the general "sub-groups" or to the subjects of the specific "sub-groups" of the respective "groups".

Level 4 (Units)

Level 4 subdivisions are not part of the official ICS document. The ICS rules however allow users of the classification system to subdivide the official ICS "sub-groups" into so-called "units", making them a Level 4 component of the International Classification for Standards. This is accomplished by adding a two-digit number to the notation of the "sub-group" being subdivided. However, instead of a period, new notations use a hyphen as a separator. For example::"35.220.20-10 Magnetic tapes"

Trivia

*The International Classification for Standards has 99 top-level divisions of which only 40 are presently used. The remaining 59 divisions are reserved for topics that are not yet known.

*There are three "official" levels in the ICS system, each holding ninety nine (99), nine hundred and ninety nine (999) and ninety nine (99) subsets, respectively.

*Each "field" of the ICS is designed to hold a maximum of 999 "groups". The number 999 is a Kaprekar number since its square (999² = 998,001) can be split into two parts, 998 and 001, which add up to the original number again (998 + 001 = 999).

*Although any "group" in the ICS may contain no more than 99 "official" "sub-groups", the holding capacity of the "group" can be expanded 99 times by using "unofficial" Level 4 subdivisions, an option that is built into the ICS. Adding Level 4 subdivisions to all "sub-groups" within a "group" increases the "group's" holding capacity to 9 801 subjects. Splitting this number into two parts, 98 and 01, and then adding them produces 99, the maximum number of "official" "sub-groups" in any given "group" of the ICS.

*The expanded version of the International Classification for Standards is capable of covering nearly 1 billion subjects (969,328,701 to be exact). This can be achieved without any restructuring of its numerical coding system. Since there are currently about 780 000 national standards in the world, the number of subjects that the ICS can offer for classification purposes exceeds 1 200 times the total number of documents that are available for classification.

References

*cite book | year=2005 | title=International Classification for Standards | edition=6th Edition | publisher=International Organization for Standardization | location=Switzerland
*cite book | first=Robert B. | last=Toth | month=April | year=1997 | title=Profiles of National Standards-Related Activities, NIST Special Publication 912 | publisher=NIST | location=United States

External links

* [http://www.iso.org/iso/ics6-en.pdf Full text of the ICS in PDF format (ISO web site)]