The International Electrotechnical Commission sets internationally binding standards for unit notation, safety nomenclature, graphical symbols, and industrial cybersecurity. UNUS London's governance documentation and system outputs are IEC-compliant by design — ensuring regulatory documents withstand technical and electrotechnical audit scrutiny.
The IEC publishes thousands of standards. The following are the standards directly applicable to UNUS London's governance documentation, system outputs, and client industries. Each standard is addressed in the sections that follow.
IEC 80000 (jointly published as ISO/IEC 80000) mandates the use of SI units and correct notation in all technical and governance documentation. In regulated environments, documents using incorrect unit notation — whether in audit reports, technical specifications, or compliance records — may be rejected by notified bodies, technical assessors, and regulatory inspectors.
The most common failures are in computing contexts: confusing decimal SI prefixes (kilo = 10³) with binary IEC prefixes (kibi = 2¹⁰), and using deprecated abbreviations. IEC 80000-13 resolves this definitively. UNUS London's documentation templates are pre-formatted to IEC 80000 notation requirements, eliminating this class of compliance failure from client deliverables.
In UNUS London's system outputs — database reports, governance documentation, audit packs — all quantities are expressed using IEC 80000-conformant notation and SI units as the mandatory default. Imperial units are converted on ingestion where required and flagged with a non-conformance record.
| Quantity | SI Unit Symbol | Correct Notation | Non-Conformant (Avoid) | IEC 80000 Part | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Storage — Binary | GiB | 1 GiB = 2³⁰ B | 1 GB (ambiguous) | 80000-13 | Database storage sizing, backup records, server specifications |
| Digital Storage — Decimal | GB | 1 GB = 10⁹ B | 1 Gb (incorrect case) | 80000-13 | Network transfer rates, cloud storage billing (provider-defined) |
| Data Transfer Rate | Mbit/s | 100 Mbit/s | 100 Mbps, 100mbps | 80000-13 | Network SLA documentation, bandwidth specifications |
| Time Duration | s, min, h | 30 s, 15 min, 4 h | 30 secs, 15 mins, 4 hrs | 80000-1 | SLA breach thresholds, audit timestamps, incident durations |
| Electric Power | W, kW, MW | 500 W, 1.5 kW | 500w, 1.5KW | 80000-6 | Data centre power consumption, UPS specifications |
| Temperature | °C, K | 21 °C, 294.15 K | 21C, 21°, 70°F | 80000-5 | Server room environmental monitoring, IEC 60068 test records |
| Frequency | Hz, MHz, GHz | 3.6 GHz, 50 Hz | 3.6ghz, 50hz, 50 cps | 80000-3 | Processor specifications, electrical supply frequency |
| Voltage | V, kV, mV | 230 V, 415 V (3-phase) | 230v, 230 volts | 80000-6 | Electrical installation records, UPS input/output specifications |
| Electric Current | A, mA | 13 A, 250 mA | 13 amp, 13 amps | 80000-6 | Circuit breaker ratings, fuse specifications, PUWER records |
| Relative Humidity | % RH | 55 % RH | 55%, 55%RH | 80000-5 | Data centre environmental monitoring, IEC 60068 test conditions |
| Apparent Power | VA, kVA | P = V × I × cos(φ) | kva, KVA (incorrect case) | 80000-6 | UPS capacity, generator sizing, power factor correction records |
| Mass | kg, g, t | 2.5 kg, 1 t (= 10³ kg) | 2.5 kgs, 5 lbs, 5 lb | 80000-4 | Hardware asset records, equipment weight limits, COSHH documentation |
IEC standards — primarily IEC 62368-1, IEC 60417, and ANSI Z535 (adopted by reference in IEC documentation) — define a mandatory four-level safety signal word hierarchy. Using the wrong signal word for a given hazard severity is itself a compliance failure. UNUS London's governance documentation templates enforce correct signal word usage, and any documentation audit trail captures the signal word classification applied to each recorded hazard.
IEC 60617 defines the graphical symbols that must be used in electrical, electronic, and telecommunications circuit diagrams and technical documentation. UNUS London's system architecture and data flow diagrams use IEC 60617-conformant symbols where applicable, ensuring client-facing technical documentation is accepted by notified bodies, technical assessors, and regulatory inspectors without amendment.
IEC 62443 defines Security Levels (SL) for industrial automation and control systems. Each level specifies the attack capability that the security countermeasures must be able to withstand. UNUS London implements IEC 62443-aligned security governance documentation for manufacturing and healthcare clients with operational technology (OT) environments.
IEC 62443 requires OT networks to be segmented into security zones — groupings of assets with common security requirements — connected through conduits with controlled data flows. UNUS London's documentation framework captures zone definitions, conduit specifications, and boundary protection measures as structured database records with immutable change history.
vw_sl_gap_analysis — current vs. target SL
per zoneSeries 2 of IEC 62443 addresses the policies, procedures, and practices required to operate an Industrial Automation and Control System (IACS) security management system. UNUS London deploys structured policy registers, procedure documentation, and evidence-generating workflows that satisfy Series 2 requirements for asset owners.
Every document and system output produced by UNUS London undergoes IEC compliance validation before delivery. The following systems are deployed to enforce IEC standards across all client-facing governance documentation.
All quantity-bearing fields in UNUS London database schemas are typed with unit constraints. Storage fields use binary (GiB) or decimal (GB) specifications depending on context. Time fields store seconds as SI base unit. Reports are generated with pre-validated unit notation — the application layer cannot produce non-conformant output.
Hazard records in the risk register include a mandatory signal_word_enum field
constrained to:
DANGER | WARNING | CAUTION | NOTICE. The database enforces that each signal word is
paired with
IEC-conformant prescriptive modal language in the associated description field, preventing
misclassification
errors in governance documentation.
For clients with OT environments, the IEC 62443 zone and conduit register is deployed as a structured PostgreSQL schema. Zone security levels, conduit specifications, and boundary protection records are all stored with immutable audit trails. Security level gap analysis is available on-demand as a database view.
For manufacturing and healthcare clients with safety-critical control systems, UNUS London structures the IEC 61508 safety lifecycle documentation as a database-managed evidence trail. Each safety lifecycle phase produces documented evidence records with approver signatures, dates, and configuration references — satisfying IEC 61508 Clause 5 documentation requirements.
The distinction between IEC-compliant and non-compliant governance documentation is often invisible to non-specialists — but immediately apparent to a technical auditor, notified body assessor, or regulatory inspector. The comparison below illustrates real-world examples from the most common failure categories.
The following illustrates a live IEC compliance audit query session against the UNUS London governance database — demonstrating how safety classifications, unit validation records, and OT security zone evidence are retrieved under audit conditions.
UNUS London achieves a composite IEC readiness score of 89/100. The score reflects the breadth of IEC standards addressed and the structural enforcement mechanisms deployed. Scores below 100 reflect standards such as IEC 61508 and IEC 60068 that require client-side configuration to reflect their specific asset environments.
The IEC 80000 Series governs how quantities and units are represented, named, and documented across technical systems. UNUS Govern continuously monitors your documentation system, technical schemas, and engineering outputs for IEC 80000 conformance — flagging drift, deprecated unit usage, and inconsistencies as they appear. The IEC 80000 evidence layer is always current, not a one-time review.
Part of UNUS Govern's continuous evidence layer.
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A 60-minute discovery call identifies your current IEC compliance gaps — in unit notation, safety signal word usage, graphical symbol conformance, and OT security governance — and scopes exactly what infrastructure will be built and transferred. Non-conformant documentation is a liability. Evidence-grade documentation is an asset.