About the ETIM standard

The classification of electrotechnical goods is designed in such a manner that any person in the “manufacturer – buyer” chain could get error-free information about each product. The ETIM model gives a list of the most important technical characteristics of each class of products for a unified description and quick search of the goods.

Challenges solved by introducing the ETIM standard

Uniform description of goods with translation into all languages supported by the standard.
Search of goods according to their type and characteristics.
Selection of analogues via automatic comparison of classes and characteristics.
Selection of complementary goods via parameter matching of specific (critical) characteristics.
Automatic names for goods based on classes and characteristics.

How ETIM works

The structure of ETIM is made up of five interconnected clusters: groups (1) EG contain classes (2) EC with which sets of available features are connected (3) EF, the features have values (4) EV or units of measurement (5) EU.

1. EG (ETIM Group) — groups of goods, sets of goods based on most common attributes, for example: EG000001 “Cable ” or EG000028 “Lamps”, there is a total of 56 groups in ETIM.

2. EC (ETIM Class) — classes of goods — perhaps, the main classifying element of the standard. Class is the “core”, the indivisible atom of a given thematic group of goods. It can be said that inside one class all the goods are analogues of each other. Each Class is a set of ETIM features. There is a total of 2,240 classes in ETIM.

3. EF (ETIM Feature) — ETIM features which serve to describe all classes of electrotechnical goods. There is a total of about 6,500 features in ETIM. In addition, the features are divided into four types:

EF type А — selection of one value from the list. For example, a lamp socket can assume one of the available values: E14, E27, G23 etc. Each value has its own specific ETIM code. Inside each class the set of values is given fixed, for example: for the feature EF000042 “Socket” in class EC001959 “Light-emitting diode lamp (LED)” ETIM only allows 13 values.
EF type N — a number. A simple feature of the “number” type, some unit of measurement is necessarily connected with this feature. Examples: EF000001 “Nominal current” (measured by amperes or milliamperes in different classes) or EF000008 “Width” (measured by millimeters, meters and centimeters, depending on the class).
EF type R — operating range. Quite similar to the previous type, but this type of features has an initial (minimum) and a final (maximum) value. An example of a feature: EF000002 “Nominal voltage” — 180…250 V.
EF type L — a logic “Yes” or “No”. Has two possible values “Yes” or “No”, in such event units of measurement are, naturally, absent

4. EV (ETIM Value) — values for features EF type А. A set of available values for features like “Socket”, “Color”, “Bulb shape”, etc. Totally there are a little over 7.5 thousand values for features of the “Select from the list” type in ETIM.

5. EU (ETIM Unit) — units of measurement for features of the types N and R. Units of measurement available: pieces, volts, amperes, meters and millimeters etc. The total is 104 units of measurement.

ETIM (Electro-Technical Information Model). ETIM is an international standard for classification and description of electrotechnical goods: luminaries, sockets, lamps, light switches etc.