Newton, MA —A recent web search on standards for automotive relays yielded the following story: "Fun wins First Place in father-son 3-legged relay." Cute, but not what I was looking for.
Engineering and manufacturing standards are not always easy to come by, which is unfortunate because they're an absolute necessity. One source for this information is through list subscriptions—reliable, yet costly. Now there is a lower-cost alternative—the Technical Document Center (TDC), at https://tdc.techsavvy.com/designnews/.
Design News and Information Handling Services (IHS) Group (Englewood, CO) are collaborating on this site to supply readers with standards relevant to the magazine's editorial content. The aim of the TDC is to increase the value of information found on the web and in the magazine through integration—making them more user-friendly. "When readers see a story on piezo-electric materials used in a new heart pump in Design News , they will now be able to go online to download the latest and most relevant standards," says Paul Teague, chief editor.
"While our Techsavvy site is basically a standards superstore, Design News' TDC is an audience specific database," says Rob Payne, vice president of retail and e-commerce at IHS.
The first collection of technical documents just became available with the Annual Automotive Issue, October 2, 2000. Some of the automotive industry standards available include exterior plastic painted parts performance, restricted and reportable chemicals, and specifications for aluminum and aluminum-alloy sheet and plate.
"IHS provides standards updates to the Boeings of the world," says Paula Porter, senior web editor at Design News . "The TDC will be a great resource for the small shops out there that can't afford subscriptions, but still want to bid on the big projects."
Updated iterations of the TDC—including lists for electronics, fastening, and aerospace—will soon appear on the industry-specific Channels at www.designnews.com.
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