ANSI

ANSI, the American National Standards Institute, is a private, nonprofit organization that coordinates and accredits the development of voluntary consensus standards in the United States. It serves as the U.S. national standards body and represents American interests in international standardization forums.

Established in 1918 as the American Engineering Standards Committee, ANSI was renamed in 1969. It is not a government agency; it relies on a broad network of members from industry, government, academia, and consumer groups to develop standards through open processes and consensus.

Role and processes: ANSI does not create standards directly. Instead, it accredits standards developers and conformity assessment bodies, facilitates public participation, and ensures due process. When a standards committee completes a standard and ANSI approves it, the document may be designated as an American National Standard (ANS).

ANSI represents the United States in ISO and IEC activities and coordinates U.S. positions on international standards. It also promotes conformity assessment and certification systems and helps align domestic standards with global norms.

In computing and information technology, the term "ANSI" is often used to refer to certain character encodings or code pages associated with Windows, and historically to ASCII in ANSI X3.4; this usage reflects the Institute's influence on specifications used in technology.

Fields covered by ANSI standards include manufacturing, construction, energy, healthcare, information technology, safety, and consumer products, reflecting the diverse interests of U.S. stakeholders.