Standardization has played an important role in the development of an interconnected and industrialized world. A large number of standards have been developed and enforced in the fields of commerce, technology, food, health and industries. This helps make the product development easier, allows collaboration between international companies, lessens the production time and helps increase international trade. Standards also allow end users to easily identify and compare different products and ensure that the quality of products being developed is uniform and up to the mark all around the world.
DIN is the abbreviation for German Institute of Standardization. It is the official representative body for Germany in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DIN operates from Berlin and is responsible for more than thirty thousand standards covering a wide range of technologies. The organization was founded in 1917 and was known as the Standardization Committee of German Industry (NADI) and received its current name in 1975.
The DIN standards feature the organization’s initials “DIN” at the beginning of each name to indicate their origin. The standards employed only in Germany feature a number after DIN while standards which are also used in Europe feature DIN EN before the designated number. DIN ISO indicates that the standard is a German edition of an ISO standard. One of the most commonly used DIN standards and one which we are all familiar with are the DIN 476 which define the A series paper sizes widely used in many applications around the world.
