BS 8888:2017

What is this standard about?

This is the latest edition of the UK’s technical product documentation and specification standard and the latest version of the standard written to supersede BS 308, the world’s first engineering drawings standard, first published in 1927.  

BS 8888 is unique to the UK, but is such a useful document that a number of other countries are now following the UK’s lead and publishing similar national standards to help their industries work with the ISO system.

Who is this standard for?

• Mechanical engineers, engineering designers and design engineers in the UK who are working in engineering and manufacturing companies, particularly in defence, aerospace, automotive, rail, nuclear and other general manufacturing sectors
• Independent design consultancies or design agencies handling design and drawing activities
• Users of the former national standard, BS 308

Why should you use this standard? 

BS 8888 is the UK’s national framework standard for engineering drawings and geometrical tolerancing. It covers all of the requirements for the technical specification of products and their component parts.

Among other things, it explains the way in which engineering drawings outline and present these specifications. It covers all of the symbology and information that engineers and designers need to include on their drawings, be they manually produced (2D), or in 3D, created using CAD systems and 3D modelling (computer-aided design).

It also brings together, in one easy-to-follow document, all the international standards needed to prepare technical product specifications. The aim is to help the UK industry move over more fully to the ISO system of geometrical product specification. As such BS 8888 acts as a gateway – or roadmap – to around 200 ISO standards on documentation, specification and verification.

Finally, from market research conducted by BSI in recent years, we know that many organizations are still using the withdrawn BS 308 as they find the new ISO standards covered by BS 8888 too complex to move over to. BS 8888 tackles the complexity of the ISO standards by making the material that engineers need on a regular basis available in one place in the body of the standard – making it easier to access and easier to use.

What’s changed since the last update?

This is the seventh edition of BS 8888. The standard is updated frequently to reflect the growing number of international standards which themselves are frequently updated.

This edition of BS 8888 includes the following changes:

• The standard has been restructured to make it easier to find key information and to improve the flow of requirements, reflecting how they will be used by designers and engineers in practice
• More information has been included on model based definition, i.e. the use of 3D models and CAD (computer-aided design)
• Additional information has been provided around the requirements for surface texture and datums