A

A/D Analogue to Digital
AAS American Astronomical Society
ABET Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (US)
ABRC Advisory Board for the Research Councils
ABS acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
AC Alternating Current
ACARD Advisory Council on Applied Research and Developenent
ACCM Advisory Council on Calibration and Measurement
ACOST Advisory Council on Science and Technology
ACSE Application Control Service Element
AFCET Association Francaise pour la Cybernetique Economique et Technique
AFRC Agricultural and Food Research Council
AFT An Foras Talúntais (now subsumed in Teagasc)
AGA American Gas Association
AGC Automatic Generation Control or Automatic Gain Control
AGU American Geophysical Union
AI Artificial Intelligence
AIA Automated Imaging Association
AIChE American Institute of Chemical Engineers
AICRO Association of Independent Contract Research Organisations
AIS Italian Instrument Society
AMR Automatic meter reading
AMS Asset management solutions
ANN Artificial Neural Networks
ANSI American National Standards Institution
AP Application protocol
API Application programming interface or American Petroleum Institution or Active pharmaceutical ingredients
APS American Physical Society
ARP Address resolution protocol
ASE Association for Science Education
ASI Actuator Sensor Interface
ASIC Application-specific integrated circuit
ASME American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials
ATERIS Air Toxics Exposure & Risk Information System
AT adaptive technologies
ATM Asynchronous transfer mode
AUT Association of University Teachers
AVS American Vacuum Society

B

B2B Business to business
B2C Business to Consumer
BAAS British Association for the Advancement of Science
BACT Best Available Control Technology
BASEEFA British Approvals Service for Electrical Equipment in Flammable Atmospheres
BAYS British Association of Young Scientists
BCR European Community Bureau of Reference
BCS British Calibration Service or British Computer Society
BEAMA British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association
BEM Big Emerging Markets
BEMS Building Energy Management System
BER Board for Engineers' Registration
BES Biological Engineering Society
BETX A mixture of benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylenes
BGIRA British Glass Industry Research Association
BHRA British Hydromechanics Research Association (now, formally, BHRA Fluid Engineering)
BIM British Institute of Management
BIOS Basic Input/output System
BIPM Bureau International des Poids et Mesures The International Bureau of Weights and Measures
BM Building Management
BMCP InstMC's Biomedical Measurement and Control Panel
BMIS British Medical Informatics Society
BMIT Biomedical Informatics Today
BMS Building Management System or Burner management system
BMTA British Measurement and Testing association
BNCIEA British National Committee for International Engineering Affairs
BNCNDT British National Committee for Non-Destructive Testing
BNES British Nuclear Energy Society
BNP Backpropagation neural network
BOD Biochemical oxygen demand
BPRA British Pattern Recognition Association
BRA British Robot Association
BSI British Standard Institution
BTECH Business and Technician Education Council
BTG British Technology Group
BTU British thermal unit
BTW By the Way

C

C Capacitance (electrical)
C Eng Chartered Engineer
C&GLI City & Guilds of London Institute
C&I Control & Instrumentation
CAA Clean Air Act (USA)
CAC Computer-Aided Calibration
CAD Computer Aided Design
CAE Computer Aided Engineering
CAL CAN application Layer
CAN Controller Area Network
CAM Compliance assurance monitoring
CBE Computer based engineering
CBM Condition-based maintenance
CBMPE Confederation of British Manufacturers of Petroleum Equipment (now EIC, qv)
CCD Charge coupled device
CCP Critical control points
CCPS Centre for Chemical Process Safety
CDRA Committee of Directors of Research Associations
CE Communauté Européenne (Conformity Europe)
CEM Continuous Emission Monitoring
CEMA Committee of European Promotors of Exhibitions of Measurement and Automation
CENELEC Committee European de Normalisation Electrotechnique
CEPC Committee of Engineering Professors' Conference
CERL Central Electricity Research Laboratory
CET Continuing Education and Training
CFSAN Centre for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (USA)
CGPM General Conference on Weights and Measures
CHEMPID ISA's Chemical & Petroleum Division
CHEMS Ceramic hybrid electromechanical systems
CIA Chemical Industries Association
CIBSE Chartered Institute of Building IServices Engineers
CIE Computer, Instrumentation and Electrical (Plant functions)
CIM Computer Integrated Manufacture
CIMAH Control of Industrial Major Accident Regulations (GB)
CIN China Instrument and Control Society
CISC Complex Instruction Set Computer
CLD Chemiluminescence detection
CMMS Control Maintenance & Management Systems
CMOS Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor
CNAA Council for National Academic Awards
CNC Computer Numerical Controller
ComCentre UK Centre for Communication Standards in the Manufacturing and Process Industries
COMMS Customer Oriented Manufacturing Management Systems
COMPUTEC ISA's Computer Technology Division
CONCEET National Conference on Engineering and Training
CORDIS Community Research & Development Information Service
CPD Continuing Professional Developement
CRM Customer relationship management
CRT Cathode Ray Tube
CSA Canadian Standards Association
CSC Chemical Sensors Club
CSE Control Systems Engineer
CTA ISA's Control Technology and Application training series
CVI C for virtual Instrumentation

D

D/A Digital to Analogue
DA Distribution Automation
DC Direct Current
DCOM Distributed common object model
DCS Distributed Control System
DIAS Distributed Intelligent Actuators and Sensors (Esprit 2172)
DIN The German Standards Institute
DLL Dynamic link liberaries
DMS Distributed Monitoring System
DMT Dynamic modeling technology
DO Dissolved Oxygen
DOE Department of the Environment (UK) or Department of Energy (US)
dp Differential Pressure
DPG Digital Pressure Gauge
DPM Digital Panel Meter or Digital Process Monitoring
DPU Distributed Processing Unit
DSM Demand-side Management
DSP Digital Signal Processing
DTI Department of Trade & Industry (UK)
DTM Difficult to Monitor
dTR Draft technical report (ISA)
DVC Digital Valve Controller
DVM Digital Volt Meter

E

EAM Enterprise asset management
EAP InstMC's Educational Activities
EARB Electronics and Avionics Requirements Board
EBR Electronic batch report
EC Engineering Council
ECPD Engineer's Council for Professional Development (now ABET)
ECROC Engineering Council Regional Organisation Committee
EDA Electronic design automation
EDI Electronic data interchange
EEMUA Engineering Equipment and Materials Users' Association
EEUA Engineering Equipment Users' Association (now subsumed in EEMUA.)
EFM Electronic flow measurement
EHT Electric heat tracing
EIAMUG European Intelligent Actuation and Measurement User Group (Esprit 8244)
EIC Energy Industries Council
EIIA European Information Industry Association
EISA Extended Industry Standard Architecture
EITB Engineering Industry Training Board
ELEOP ISA's Electro Optics Division
EMAS Eco-management Audit Scheme (EU Initiative)
EMC Electromagnetic Compatability
EMF Electromagnetic Flowmeter
EMI Electromagnetic Interference
EMS Energy Management Systems
EMUG European Map User Group
EOS European Optical Society
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
EPIC Exchange Price Information Computer (Code used in Stock Exchange dealings)
EPRI Electric Power Research Institute
EPS European Physical Society
EPTIS The European Proficiency Testing Information System
ERA Electrical Research Association (now, formally ERA Technology Ltd.)
ERB Engineers' Registration Board (Formally part of CEI)
ERM Enterprise resource management
ERO Engineering Regional Organisation
ERP Enterprise resource planning
ESAC Electrical Systems and Controls
ESB Electricity Supply Board
ESD Emergency shutdown
ESF European Science Foundation
ESTA Energy Systems Trade Association
ETQ Inst MC's Education, Training and Qualifications Committee
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
EU European Union
EVOH Ethylene vinyl alcahol

F

F Fellow (as in FInstMC, FRSA, FIEE etc)
FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN)
FÁS Foras çiseanna Saothair
FAT Factory Acceptance Test
FCC Federal communications commission
FCS Functional Companion Standard
FCU Field Control Unit
FD Failed dangerous
FDA Food and Drug Administration (USA)
FDDI Fibre distributed data interface
FEANI Federation Europenne Associations National des Ingenieurs.
FIACC Five International Associations Coordinating Committee
FMS Facility Management Systems
FPAA Field programmable analog arrays
FPGA Field programmable gate array
FPSO Floating production, storage and offloading vessels
FRD Functional Requirement Diagram (implementation dependant)
FRS Functional Requirements Specification
FS Failed safe
FT-IR Fourier transform infrared
FT-NIR Fourier transform near infrared
FTP File Transfer Protocol

G

G&C ISA's Glass & Ceramic Division Association for Instrumentation, Control, Automation
GAMBICA - Group of Association of Manufacturers of British, Instruments, Control and Automation.
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GC General Council (as in IMEKO)
GCIIG InstMC's Glass and Ceramics Industry Instrumentation Group
GPA Gas Processors Association
gpm Gallons per minute
GUI Graphical User Interface

H

H&A ISA's Honours and Awards
HACCP Hazard analysis and critical control points
HAZOP Hazard & Operability Study
HACCP Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points
HCl Hydrochloric acid
HeNe Helium neon
HMI Human machine inteface (see also MMI)
HNC/D Higher National Certificate/Diploma
hp Horsepower
HON Hazardous organic national emission standard for hazardous air pollutants
HPLC High performance liquid chromatography
HSE Health and Safety Executive (UK)

I

I Current (electric)
I&C Instrumentation & Control
I&S ISA's Industries & Science Dept.
I/O Input/Output
I/P Current to Pressure (Electropneumatic)
IA Intelligent Actuator (or Actuation)
IAIG InstMC's Industrial Analytical Instrumentation Group
IAM Intelligent Actuation & Measurement
IAONA Industrial Automation Open Networking Alliance
IAT Intelligent Actuators & Transmitters
ICA Independent computing architecture
ICE Institution of Civil Engineers
IChemE Institution of Chemical Engineers
ICS Industrial Computing Society
ICSA Information and Computing Services Association
ICTP International Centre for Theoretical Physics
IDBMS Instrumentation database management system
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
IEE Institution of Electrical Engineers
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IEEIE Institution of Electrical and Electronics Incorporated Engineers
IEI Institution of Engineers of Ireland
IEng Incorporate Engineer
IERE Institution of Electronic and Radio Engineers
IETC Initial Education and Training Committee (of EC)
IFAC International Federation of Automatic Control (Member of FIACC)
IFD Intelligent Field Device
IFIP International Federation of Information Processing (Member of FIACC)
IFORS International Federation of Operational Research (Member of FIACC)
IFSA International Frequency Sensor Association
IGE Institution of Gas Engineers
IICA Institute of Instrumentation and Control Australia
ILAC International Laboratory Accreditation Conference
ILD Instrument loop diagram
ILM ISA's Industrial Learning Modules
IM Intelligent Measurement (function)
IMA Institute of Mathamatics and its Application
IMACS International Association for Mathamatics and Computers in Simulation (Member of FIACC)
IMarE Institute of Marine Engineers
IMC Institute of Management Consultants
IMechE Institution of Mechanical Engineers
IMEKO International Measurement Confederation (Member of FIACC)
IMT Industrial & Materials Technologies
InstMC Institute of Measurement and Control
INTECH Instrument Technology - Journal of ISA
IP Institute of Petroleum
IoP Institute of Physics
IPC Integrated pollution control
IProdE Institution of Production Engineers
IPTS International Practical Temperature Scale
IQ Installation Qualification
IR Infrared
IS Intrinsically safe
ISA The Instruments, Systems and Automation Society (initials originally stood for Instrument Society of America the original organisation)
ISA Instruments, Systems and Automation
IT Intelligent Transmitter
ITB Industry Training Board
ITRU Industrial Training and Research Unit
ITS International Temperature Scale
ITTP ISA's Instrument Technician Training Program
IVP Implied Valve Position
IWEM The Institution of Water and Environmental Management

J

JEC InstMC's Journal Editorial Committee
JEMIMA The Japan Electrical Measurements Manufacturers' Association
JIMS Joint Industrial Measurement Programme (a DTI/SERC Scheme)
JUSE Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers

K

kg/d kilograms per day
kHz kilohertz
KIVI Koninklijk Instituut van Inginieurs (Netherlands)

L

L Inductance (electric)
LAN Local Area Network
LAP Light-addressable potentiometric
LASER Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
LDAR Leak Detection and Repair
LIMS Laboratory Information Management Systems
LNG Liquified Natural Gas
LSB InstMC's Learned Society Board
LUT Loughborough University of Technology
LV Low Voltage
LVDT Linear variable differential transformer

M

M&C Measurement and Control - The Journal of InstMC
M&M ISA's Mining & Metallurgy Divisions
M&S ISA's Marketing & Sales Division
mA Milliampere
MACT Maximum Available Control Technology
MAINT ISA's Maintenance Division
MAP Manufacturing Automation Protocol (cf EMUG)
MB InstMC's Management Board
MBA Master of Business Administration
Mbps magabits per second
MCC Motor control centre
MEMS Microelectro-mechanical systems
MEMS Microelectro-mechanical sensors
MES Manufacturing Execution Systems
mgd Million gallons per day
MIPS million instructions per second
MIRA Motor Industry Research Association
MIS Management Information Systems
MITP InstMC's Measurement and Instrumentation Technology Panel
MMI Man-machine Interface (see also HMI Human-machine interface)
MMS Manufacturing Message Specification
MMU Memory mangement unit
MPFF Maintenance preventable function failure
MRC Medical Research Council
MRDE Mining Research and Development Establishment
MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MRP Material Resource Planning
MRPII Manufacturing Resource Planning
MRS Materials Research Society
MS Mass spectroscopy
MS-MUG Microsoft- Manufacturing User Group
MSRB Metrology Standards Requirements Board
MTBF Mean time between failures
MTF Modulation Transfer Function
MTIRA Machine Tool Industry Research Association
MTTA Machine Tool Trades Association
MW Megawatts
MW-NIR Multiwavelength near wavelength near infrared

N

NAB National Advisory Board
NACE National Association of Corrosion Engineers
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
NAMAS National Measurement Accreditation Service
NATLAS National Testing Laboratory Accreditation Scheme
NBS National Bureau of Standards
NCC National Computing Centre
NCEA National Council for Educational Awards
NCMS National Centre for Manufacturing Sciences (US)
NCVQ National Council for Vocational Qualifications
NDIR Nondispersive infrared
NEB National Enterprise Board (now subsumed in BTG)
NEB Nuclear Energy Board
NEC National Electrical Code
NEL National Engineering Laboratory
NEMA National Electrical Manufacturers Association
NERC National Environment Research Council
NFPA National Fire Protection Association
NIFAST National Industrial Fire and Safety Centre
NIMR National Institute for Medical Research
NIR Near infrared
NISO National Industrial Safety Organisation
NIST National Institute of Standards & Technology
NITEC National Information Technology in Education Centre
nm nanometer
NML National Metrology Laboratory
NPL National Physical Laboratory
NPRA National Petrochemical and Refiners Association
NRDC National Research Developement Corporation (noe subsumed in BTG)
NSF National Science Foundation
NTU nephelometric turbidity unit

O

O&M Operations and Maintenance
OA Open architecture
OASIS Open access same time information system
OCMA Oil Companies' Materials Association (now subsumed in EEMUA)
OCS Open control system
ODAA Open data acquisition association
ODBC Open data base connectivity
ODVA Open DeviceNet Vendors Association
OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
OI Operator interface
OIML International Organisation of Legal Metrology
OLE Object Linking and Embedding
ONC/D Ordinary National Certificate/Diploma
OPC OLE for Process Control
OSA Optical Society of America
OSHA Occupational Health and Safety Administration (US)
OSI Open systems interconnect
OSICOM ISA's Open Systems Interconnections Division (now OSID)
OSID ISA's Open Systems Interconnection Division
OU Open University

P

P&A InstMC's Prizes and Awards Committee
P&ID Piping and instrumentation diagram
pa Pascal
PC Personal Computer
PC Programmable Controller (especially before IBM used the term PC for their computer)
PCI Perpheral component interconnect
PCM Process-control module
PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PCS Process Control System
PD Proportional-Derivative
PDQ Pretty Damn Quick
PE Professional Engineeror Process Engineer
PEMS Predictive emissions-monitoring system
PER Packed Encoding Rules
PERA Production Engineering Research Association
PES Programmable Electronic Systems
PFD Probability of Failure on Demand
PFD Process flow diagram
PGS Practical Guide Series (ISA Book Sieries)
pH Hydrogen Ion Concentration (measure of acidity)
PHA Process hazards analysis
PHU Powder handling unit
PI Proportional-Integral
PID Process & Instrument Design (US) or PID Proportional-Integral-Derivative (as in PID controller)
PIN Plant information network
PIRS Process infrared system
PLC Programmable Logic Controller
PM Particulate matter or preventive maintenance
PMA Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association
PMBC Process-Model Based Controller
PMCD ISA's Process Measurement & Control Division
PMIS++ Process Management Information System
PMM Process monitoring modules
ppb Parts per billion
ppm Parts per million
PQ Performance Qualification
PRIAM Pre-Normative Requirements foor Intelligent Actuation & Measurements (Esprit 6188)
PRT Platinum resistance thermometer
PSI Pounds per Square Inch
PSIG Pounds per Square Inch, Gauge
PSM Process Safety Management
PT Pressure transmitter
PTB Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt
PTS Proficiency testing scheme
PUPID Pulp & Paper Industries Division
PV Process variable

Q

QA Quality Assurance
QAD Quarter Amplitude Damped
QAP Quality assurance plan
QC Quality Control
QIP Quality Improvement Program

R

R Resistance (electric)
R&D Research & Development
RAC Regional Advisory Council
RAeS Royal Aeronautical Society
RAPS Remote Applications Protocol Suite
RBC Rotating biological contactor
RCM Reliability-centred Maintenance
RDBMS Relational database management system
REMAP Rehabilitation Engineering Movement Advisory Panel
RF Radio Frequency
RF/EMI Radio frequency and electromagnetic interference
RFI Radio Frequency Interference
RGS Reference Guides Series (ISA Book Series)
RIA Robotic Industries Association
RISC Reduced Instruction Set Computing
RLL Relay Ladder Logic
RMC ISA's series Resources in Measurement & Control
RMC Resources for Measurement & Control (ISA Book Series)
RMP Risk management plan
ROM Rigorous online modeling
RPP Recovery pilot plant
RSC Royal Society of Chemistry
RTD Resistance Thermometer Device or detector
RTU Remote terminal or telemetry unit

S

S&P ISA's Standards & Practices Division
SAT Site Aceptance Test
SATRO Science and Technology Regional Organisation
SCADA Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems
SCET Standing Committee on Education and Training (of EC)
SCEM Supply chain event management
SCFH Standard cubic feet per hour
SCM Supply-chain management
SCPI Standing Committee on Professional Institutions (of EC)
SCPI Standard Commands for Programmable Controllers
SCPM Supply chain process management
SCTP InstMC's Systems and Control Technology Panel
SDS Smart Distributed Systems
SEFE Societe Europenne pour la Formation des Ingenieurs
SER Sequential Event Recorder
SERC Science and Engineering Research Council
SFC Sequential Function Chart
SGT Society of Glass Technology
SHE Safety, Health and Environment
SI International System of Units
SIC Standard Industry Classification
SIG Special Interest Group
SIL Safety Integrity Level
SIRA Scientific Instrument Research Association (now SIRA Ltd)
SIRCH ISA's Scientific Instrumentation & Research Division
SIS Safety Instrumented System
SIU System interface units
SLC Single-loop controller
SLDC Single-loop digital controller
SLPM Standard litres per minute
SMDS Switched multimegabit data service
SME Society of Manufacturing Engineers
SMP InstMC's Systems and Management Panel
SMV Smart multivariable transmitter
SOCMI Synthetic Organic Chemicals and Manufacturing Industry
SOP Standard Operating Procedure
SP ISA's designation for Standards and Practices sup committies (EG SP75.01 Terminology)
SPC Statistical Process Control
SPIE Society of Photo-Optical Instrumental Engineers (now the International Society for Optical Engineering)
SPP InstMC's Standards Policy Panel
SPR Strategic petroleum reserve
SPRINT Strategic Programnme for Innovation and Technology Transfer
SPRT Standard platinum resistance thermometer
SQC Statistical quality control
SQL Structured query language
SRS Safety requirement specification
SUT Society for Underwater Technology
SWR Standing wave ratio

T

T&D Transmission & Distribution
TC Technical Committee (as in IMEKO)
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/internet protocol
TDR Transducer
TEEC InstMC's Transactions Editorial Executive Committee
TEFC Totally enclosed fan cooled
TELCOM ISA's Telemetry & Communications Division
TENV Totally enclosed non-ventilated
TMD ISA's Test & Measurement Division
TMR Triple Modular Redundant
TOC Total Organic Carbon
TOX Total Organic Halide
tpaML Trading-partner agreement Mark-up Language.
TT Temperature transmitter
TXR Transmitter (as in pressure transmitter)

U

UHF Ultra high frequency
UI User interface
UK OSCA United Kingdom Optical Sensors Collaborative Association
UKAC United Kingdom Automatic Control Council
UKAPE United Kingdom Association of Professional Engineers
UMIST University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
UMS Utilities Management Services
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UPS Uninterruptable power supply
URL Universal Resource Locator
UTM Unsafe to Monitor
UUT Unit Under Test

V

V Voltage
VBA Visual Basic for Applications
VCM Vibration Conditioning Monitoring
VDE Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker
VDI Verein Deutscher Ingenieure
VEC Vocational Education Committee
VRML Virtual-reality modeling language
VESA Video Electronics Standards Association
VHAPS Volitile Hazardous Air Pollutants
VHLL Very High-level Language
VME Virtual memory environment
VOC Volatile organic compound
VPN Virtual Private Network

W

W&D Weigh and dispense
WBF World Batch Forum
WDM Wavelength division multiplexing
WECC Western European Calibration Cooperation
WELAC Western European Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation
WES Womens Engineering Society
WETO Western Environmental Technology Office (US)
WFEO World Federation of Engineering Organisations
WISE Women in Science and Engineering
WRC Water Research Centre
WWID ISA's Water & Wastewater Division

X

Y

YAG yttrium-aluminium-garnet
YEB Young Engineers for Britain (a competition run by the EC)

Z