Finding Standards & Codes  

Standards and codes come from a variety of sources in a variety of packages. This means that you have to be rather ceative in tracking them down, if we have them.

Most get called "Standards" but you'll find some documents called Recommended Practices, Guidelines, Military Specifications (aka Mil Specs), all serving the same purposes.
"Codes" are often standards for buildings & construction but there’s also the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel code.

They are the reason that:

• a lightbulb made in China for GE fits in a socket made in Thailand for Phillips and works using North American power.
• a steam boiler won’t blow up when operated at specified temperature & pressures and will vent if it does exceed those specifications.
• That it's possible to assemble a computer from components manufactured by many companies and to use software written by other companies and have it work.
• a test carried out by a lab in Vancouver is comparable to one done in Montreal.
• the cable pulling your elevator box up to the 10th floor doesn’t snap under a half load.

Briefly, a standard is a document prescribing (ie, mandatory) or recommending performance, product characteristics, designs or management objectives. If you want more details you may want to read Standards Systems: a guide for regulators from the Standards Council of Canada or a definition from the British Standards Institute.

Most standards follow a similar number format, looking something like:
ABC D123.56-07
where the
ABC is the organization that developed the standard
D is a broad subject category (not always present)
123.56 is a document/standard number
07 indicates the standard was approved in 2007

You might see
CSA B44.2-10 which a CSA standard B44.2 (covering maintenance of elevators and similar devices) the edition issued in 2010.