BS 8888:2020

Technical product documentation and specification

What is BS 8888:2020 about?

This is the ninth edition of the UK's national framework standard for the technical specification of products and their component parts using engineering drawings.

BS 8888:2020 brings together in one place all the international standards needed to prepare technical product specifications. It also now includes much more of the basic information engineers need on a regular basis.

Who is BS 8888:2020 for?

• Mechanical engineers
• Design engineers
• Manufacturing engineers
• Independent design consultancies
• Design agencies
• Users of the former national standard BS 308

BS 8888:2020 is typically used in the aerospace, defence, automotive, rail, nuclear and medical devices sectors, and also by any engineering or manufacturing organization that needs to produce an engineering drawing.

Why should you use BS 8888:2020?

This is a unique national framework standard for the technical specification of products and their component parts using engineering drawings, manually produced (2D) or created using CAD systems and 3D modelling.

Developed by experts from leading aerospace, defence, automotive, rail, nuclear and medical devices companies, as well as academics from leading mechanical engineering universities, BS 8888:2020 brings together, in one easy-to-follow document, all of the international standards needed to prepare technical product specifications.

It thereby serves as a gateway, or roadmap, to 200 or more ISO standards, but now also includes much more of the basic information engineers need on a regular basis that are the essentials of engineering specification.

Use of BS 8888:2020 will:

• Ensure access to one reference source with all the relevant information
• Enable a shared language when specifying and graphically representing products
• Provide precision and accuracy, leaving no room for misinterpretation
• Help the smooth transfer of the design concept to the manufacturing process
• Shorten product development time and increase speed to market
• Reduce disputes over compliance or noncompliance of components
• Reduce scrap and re-work rates
• Reduce queries due to incomplete specifications
• Help UK industry move over more fully to the ISO system of geometrical product specification, bringing improved productivity, reduced costs and enhanced quality

What's new about BS 8888:2020?

This standard is regularly updated to reflect the growing number of international standards, which themselves are revised and updated frequently.

This revision includes the following changes from the last edition:

a) New and updated material from recently revised international standards:

1. ISO 1101, the main geometrical tolerancing requirements standard
2. ISO 2692, the maximum material requirements standard
3. ISO 5458, the patterns and combined geometrical specification standard

b) A new section on welding symbols and how they are used on engineering drawings

c) An enhanced surface texture section providing fuller requirements for surface texture specification

The document has been restructured to make it easier to find key information and to improve the flow of requirements to reflect how they will be used by designers and engineers in practice.

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