Glossary · Safety standards
NAMUR standards
Also known as: NAMUR recommendations
German: NAMUR-Standards
NAMUR standards are the recommendations (NE) and worksheets (NA) published by NAMUR, the international user association of automation technology in process industries; they are not formal standards but widely adopted user requirements and good practices.
- Standards
In one sentence
NAMUR standards are the recommendations (NE) and worksheets (NA) of NAMUR, the process industry user association, widely used as user requirements.
Example
A chemical company requires that all new field devices support NE 107 diagnostic status signals and NE 43 signal levels for failure information.
How it applies
- Engineering: Well-known examples include NE 43 (signal levels for failure information of 4–20 mA transmitters), NE 107 (self-monitoring and diagnosis of field devices) and the NAMUR Open Architecture (NOA) recommendations.
- Procurement: Operators cite NAMUR recommendations in specifications, so suppliers need to know which ones they support.
- Documentation: Device and system manuals should state which NAMUR recommendations are supported and how; the documentation team should use NAMUR terminology where customers expect it.
- Updates: NAMUR recommendations are revised over time; reference the edition that applies.
NAMUR recommendations vs. standards
NAMUR documents are user recommendations, not IEC or ISO standards and not harmonized standards; some have fed into formal standardization.
Where a recommendation conflicts with a customer's own specification, the contract decides which applies.