IEC 61987-1:2006

INTERNATIONAL IEC
STANDARD 61987-1
First edition
2006-12
Industrial-process measurement and control –
Data structures and elements in process
equipment catalogues –
Part 1:
Measuring equipment with analogue
and digital output
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INTERNATIONAL IEC
STANDARD 61987-1
First edition
2006-12
Industrial-process measurement and control –
Data structures and elements in process
equipment catalogues –
Part 1:
Measuring equipment with analogue
and digital output
© IEC 2006 ⎯ Copyright - all rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from the publisher.
International Electrotechnical Commission, 3, rue de Varembé, PO Box 131, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland
Telephone: +41 22 919 02 11 Telefax: +41 22 919 03 00 E-mail: inmail@iec.ch Web: www.iec.ch
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International Electrotechnical Commission
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For price, see current catalogue

– 2 – 61987-1 © IEC:2006(E)
CONTENTS
FOREWORD.3
INTRODUCTION.5

1 Scope.7
2 Normative references.7
3 Terms and definitions .7
4 Metadocuments .15
4.1 General .15
4.2 Metadocument chapters and features .16
4.3 Nomenclature .18
5 Metadocument for process measuring equipment.18
5.1 Identification.18
5.2 Application.19
5.3 Function and system design.19
5.4 Input.20
5.5 Output .20
5.6 Performance characteristics .21
5.7 Operating conditions.22
5.8 Mechanical construction .24
5.9 Operability.25
5.10 Power supply.25
5.11 Certificates and approvals .26
5.12 Ordering information.26
5.13 Documentation .26

Annex A (normative) Classification of features as a function of measuring equipment .27
Annex B (informative) Classification of features as a function of measurement principle .29

Bibliography .49

Figure 1 – Classification scheme for process measuring equipment.16

Table A.1 – Classification and documentation structure of measuring equipment. .27
Table B.1 – Classification and documentation structure of flow measuring equipment .30
Table B.2 – Classification and documentation structure of level measuring equipment .34
Table B.3 – Classification and documentation structure of pressure measuring
equipment.38
Table B.4 – Classification and documentation structure of temperature measuring
equipment.43
Table B.5 – Classification and documentation structure of temperature measuring
equipment.46

61987-1 © IEC:2006(E) – 3 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
INDUSTRIAL-PROCESS MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL –
DATA STRUCTURES AND ELEMENTS
IN PROCESS EQUIPMENT CATALOGUES –

Part 1: Measuring equipment with analogue and digital output

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
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agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
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between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
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5) IEC provides no marking procedure to indicate its approval and cannot be rendered responsible for any
equipment declared to be in conformity with an IEC Publication.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
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8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of
patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
International Standard IEC 61987-1 has been prepared by subcommittee 65B: Devices, of IEC
technical committee 65: Industrial-process measurement and control.
This standard cancels and replaces IEC/PAS 61987-1 published in 2002. This first edition
constitutes a technical revision.
The text of this standard is based on the following documents:
FDIS Report on voting
65B/599/FDIS 65B/602/RVD
Full information on the voting for the approval of this standard can be found in the report on
voting indicated in the above table.

– 4 – 61987-1 © IEC:2006(E)
This publication has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The committee has decided that the contents of this publication will remain unchanged until the
maintenance result date indicated on the IEC web site under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data
related to the specific publication. At this date, the publication will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
A bilingual edition of this standard may be issued at a later date.

61987-1 © IEC:2006(E) – 5 –
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, industry has become alert to the fact that a great deal of time and effort is
wasted in the transposition of measuring equipment data from one form to another. The
technical data of an instrument, for example, may exist at the manufacturer’s facilty as two
separate data sets for paper and electronic presentation: the end-user requires much the same
data for works standards, engineering data bases or commercial data bases. In most cases,
however, the data cannot be automatically re-used because each application has its own
particular data storage format.
A second problem that belies the re-use of technical data is the content of the product
descriptions themselves. There is little agreement between manufacturers on what information
a technical data sheet should contain, how it should be arranged or how the results, for
example, of particular performance tests should be presented. When transferring this
information into a data base, an end-user will always find gaps and proprietary interpretations
that make the task more difficult.
This standard aims at solving these problems by defining a generic structure and its content for
industrial-process measuring and control equipment. It builds upon the assumption that, for a
given class of measuring equipment, for example, pressure measuring equipment, temperature
measuring equipment or electromagnetic flow-measuring equipment, a set of non-proprietary
structures and product features can be specified. The resulting documents cannot only be
exchanged electronically, they can also be presented to humans in an easily understandable
form.
This standard is applicable to electronic catalogues of process measuring equipment with
analogue and digital output. Further parts with similar classification structures will be produced
for measuring equipment with binary output and interface equipment in the future. (The
structure already contains a great many product features that are common to measuring
equipment with binary output.) Similarly, Annex B has been prepared with a view to future
standardization.
This standard is not intended as a replacement for existing standards, but rather as a guiding
document for all future standards which are concerned with the specifications of process
measuring equipment. Every revision of an existing standard should take into account the
structures and product features defined in Clause 5 of this standard or work towards a
harmonization.
Annex A contains a tabular overview of the classification and catalogue structure of process
measuring equipment. Annex B contains tables with a further sub-classification for specific
measured variables.
Wherever possible, existing terms from international standards have been used to
...