ISO TC 60 and TC 4 Standardization Work—Our “Alter Ego”

Many of our favorite movie characters carry an alter ego: Clark Kent and Superman, Jekyll and Hyde, Bruce Wayne and Batman…you get my point. Neither nefarious nor secret, the Motion + Power Manufacturers Alliance (MPMA) carries a similar twin. You may be involved in one of our 15 technical committees and the sub-working groups that are involved in one of the 14 open projects (found at agma.org/committees/standards-projects/ or americanbearings.org/industry-standards/), but both AGMA and ABMA divisions are busy helping to develop international standards on the gear and bearing technical committees within the International Standards Organization (ISO). Our ISO “alter ego.” Like our working groups and committees that bring together companies, academia, and consultants to manage, create, and revise standards, ISO working groups (WG) bring together member countries. Members are split into two groups: P-members are actively participating and have voting and participation expectations, while O-members observe the activities of the working group and can comment on developing standards. There is only one member to ISO per country and that member for the United States is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI has delegated all activity under ISO TC 60 (gears) and ISO TC 4 (rolling bearings) to MPMA. Just as Superman “talks” to Clark Kent, MPMA communicates with ISO. It’s a two-way street of information where the US brings suggested content from our standards to ISO WGs for consideration. This can be a portion of a US document, or the entire document. Conversely, the US can adopt an ISO document or utilize content from the ISO document in our own standard. All of this is in addition to actively participating in the WG activities. MPMA facilitates a US delegate to join each WG as a subject matter expert to bring the US position and help with the standards development process. Keeping active with our alter ego ensures that our processes are globally considered and fosters a consistent language when doing business.