For many years, ISO/TC44 has had a special relationship with the IIW. This arose from the dual participation of welding experts in the working units of TC44 and the Commissions of IIW and resulted in IIW Commissions being requested to formulate draft standards or to resolve particular technical issues in order to relieve TC44 of some of its workload. More recently, the Council of the International Organisation for Standardization has approval the IIW as an independent international standardisation body able to submit draft international standards to ISO voting systems without the need for these drafts to be reviewed and processed by ISO Technical Committees.
The preparation of draft international standards in the IIW is carried out by Commissions and special groups. The overall standardisation programme is administered by the Select Committee on Standardisation (SC STAND). The membership of SC STAND is made up of specialists and experts in the field of standardisation. It includes strong representation from national standardisation bodies.
Whilst the IIW is one of three separate organisations developing international welding standards (ISO, IIW and CEN), it has a combination of features that makes it suitable for dealing with certain subjects and types of issue. Besides having strong representation from many national standardisation bodies, its draws together a broad body of specialists and experts from different geographical locations in the world with experience covering most areas of welding technology.
The IIW has made various contributions to international standardisation. Its aims are to continue in this role, to maintain its competence as an ISO approved international standardisation body and to work in close cooperation with ISO/TC44 on the development of international welding standards and the resolution of welding standardisation problems.
A coordination committee exists between IIW and ISO/TC44 with observers from CEN/TC121. Its purpose is to eliminate duplication and allocate standardisation projects between IIW, ISO/TC44 and CEN/TC121. This has been a successful cooperation and the Committee now reviews the progress of IIW standardisation projects as part of its activities.
Go to the Working Group Standardization page to learn more on the Standardization in IIW.
The aims of SC STAND are detailed in the following table.
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No. |
DESCRIPTION OF AIM |
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1 |
To provide the central administration within IIW for the coordination, processing and monitoring of IIW standardisation work items and documents. |
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2 |
To liaise on behalf of IIW with ISO through the ISO/IIW Coordination Committee and other Regional Standardisation organisations, as necessary, on all standardisation matters affecting IIW. |
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3 |
To provide guidance to ISO on international standardisation needs and to instigate work within IIW when technical clarification is requested by ISO |
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4 |
To establish and maintain internal IIW procedures for:processing new standardisation work items within IIW identifying the different type of ISO normative documents and preparing internal procedures identifying the processing routes within ISO for their approval liaising with ISO to avoid duplication of effort on standardisation projects allocating standardisation work items to IIW working units establishing schedules for the preparation of normative documents and targets for their completion monitoring progress of IIW standardisation projects/work items vetting IIW normative documents to ensure they are coherent and comply with ISO Directivesensuring that balloting on standardisation projects and normative documents is in accordance with rules acceptable to ISO transmission of normative documents and associated records to ISO |
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5 |
To undertake standardisation tasks as directed by the Board of Directors of the IIW |