Standard setters in the spotlight - Part 2: UNE, AFNOR, UNI
We now turn to three standardization organizations from the Mediterranean region after focusing on standardization in the German-speaking world in the first part of our series.
The Mediterranean countries of Spain, France, and Italy are among the most important industrialized nations in Europe. Similar to the German-speaking countries covered in the first part of our series, they also have nationally recognized standards organizations.
Asociación Española de Normalización (UNE)
In 1986, the year of Spain's accession to the European Economic Community, the Asociación Española de Normalización y Certificación (AENOR) was founded and recognized as Spain's national standards organization. Previously, the state-owned Instituto de Racionalización y Normalización (IRANOR) had been responsible for standardization tasks. In 1997 and 2001, AENOR also opened branches in Mexico and Chile. Finally, in 2017, the organization was subdivided into today's Asociación Española de Normalización (UNE) as a state-recognized standards organization and its subsidiary AENOR, which, in addition to distributing UNE standards, offers various services in the areas of knowledge management, certification, inspection, and testing, among others. Internationally, UNE represents Spain at ISO, IEC, CEN, CENELEC as well as COPANT and is involved in several international cooperation projects. Currently, more than 12,000 experts from 6,000 private or public organizations collaborate in standardization, divided into 219 committees at present.
More than 32,000 UNE standards also include numerous testing standards that are relevant to the work of testing service providers. These include, for example, test methods for wine corks, tests of photovoltaic components, or tests of the fire behavior of building materials.
Association française de normalisation (AFNOR)
The French standards organization Association française de normalisation (AFNOR) was founded in 1926. In 1947 and 1961, it was a founding member of CEN and ISO. In 2014 and 2019, it took over first all operational and then all strategic standardization tasks from the Union technique de l'électricité (UTE), until then France's most important electrotechnical standardizer. Today, AFNOR has around 2500 member companies. Certification and training services are provided by its subsidiaries AFNOR Certification and AFNOR Compétences. Together with AFNOR Éditions and AFNOR Normalisation, these form the Groupe AFNOR. AFNOR Éditions is responsible for the distribution of standards, while AFNOR Normalisation is in charge of standardization.
The result of these standardizations is the so-called NF standards. Many of these standards are testing standards, including, for example, various test methods for water samples or plastic tests.
Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione (UNI)
The Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione (UNI), also known as the Ente Italiano di Normazione, was founded in 1921 as a standards organization for the mechanical industry (UNIM). In 1928, its scope was extended to other industries and the name was changed to UNI. The organization represents Italy at CEN and ISO and today has over 4100 members from various sectors. They are involved in standardization tasks in more than 1000 committees. They are currently supported by seven independent Enti Federati, each specializing in certain industrial sectors and assuming specific tasks in these areas. Examples are the CIG (Comitato Italiano Gas), the CUNA (Commissione Tecnica di Unificazione nell'Autoveicolo) and UNIPLAST (Ente Italiano di Unificazione nelle Materie Plastiche), which specializes in plastics. All standardization activities are coordinated by UNI's highest body, the Commissione Centrale Tecnica (CCT).
Among the more than 1500 UNI standards that are published in this way year after year, there are also many testing standards with which testing institutes work. These standards define various test methods, such as for testing the fire behavior of various test objects.
Finding testing laboratories for UNE, NF, and UNI standards
A large proportion of current standards from Spain, France, and Italy are now based on international standards developed by ISO and CEN. In these cases, an equivalent national standard often exists in other countries, so you may be able to have your testing performed to the NF-EN-ISO standard by a French lab, for example, or to the equivalent DIN-EN-ISO standard by a lab in Germany. On the international testing laboratory marketplace testxchange, testing laboratories from various countries can be found using standard search terms. Anyone requiring testing to UNE, NF, or UNI standards can also submit a free request there to obtain quotations from appropriate laboratories.