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A Guide to Engineering Resources

Engineering Standards, Codes & Patents

You MUST request individual standards for purchase. If you need a standard, email the standard number (e.g. ASTM-F3502-21) to Lauren Todd. You can also email her for help identifying relevant standards.

Standards

  • Documentation of engineering practices including rules, techniques, and conditions for engineering design, industrial practices, units of measurement, terminology, etc.
  • Committees, affiliated with societies or organizations, and made up of specialists from universities and industry write standards.
  • Give guidance and authority to engineering design.
  • Can be mandatory or voluntary.
  • Rules for uniformity, size, quality, performance, shape, definition, and testing methodology of manufactured products.

Codes

  • set mandatory legal requirements.
  • Clarifies what needs to be done

Patents

  • "type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention." Wikipedia