Feature

An International “Aye” For Optical Drawing Standards

Robert Parks

As we have talked about international standardization efforts in optics, I often get the feeling that few people believe anything will ever come of this work. This feeling is understandable, since it has taken almost 14 years to finish and adopt ISO 10110, the optical drawing standard. However, the vote is in and all nine parts that were being voted on were approved, with only one country casting a negative vote on just two parts of the standard. In all, 12 countries took part in the voting, and it is interesting to see how international the vote was. In addition to seven votes from European countries, the balance came from China, India, Japan, South Africa, and the U.S. In several cases, the countries contributed nothing to the writing of the standard, yet voted for acceptance without even making comments on it. To me, this indicates an understanding that this will be the international optical drawing standard, and that these countries have accepted this and are ready to move ahead using the new standard.