This International Standard is applicable to measurement technology. It defines rules for the
unambiguous designation of different types of measuring instruments and of measuring
instrument features with the intention of enabling unambiguous technical communication over
language boundaries.
The scope of this International Standard is
– the adaptation of the designation of measuring instruments and of measuring instrument
features to the state of science by designating them according to the measuring quantity
or the measuring task instead of the unit, and
– the adaptation of the designation of measuring instruments and of measuring instrument
features to the terms given in the ISO/IEC Guide 99 (VIM).
It is strongly recommended that “…….. measuring instrument” is used as secondary
component in compound terms. This is consistent with the objective of standardization,
namely uniformity, especially since the meaning of other secondary components, e.g.
“indicator”, “gauge”, “meter”, is no more descriptive than that of the standard component in
this context. For exceptions see 4.1 and A.2.
The ambiguous secondary component “... sensor” shall not be used. In its place one of the
secondary components “… sensing element”, “... detector”, “... transformer”, “... transducer”,
“… transmitter”, “... measuring instrument” or “... measuring chain” shall be used, depending
on the task of the functional unit being termed. The definitions for detector (detecting device),
transformer, transducer and transmitter are given in IEC 60050-351.