Chapter 1d: Concept of Preferred Numbers 0908589 Selected Topics in

Mechatronics

Chapter 1d
Concept of Preferred Numbers
(Revision 1.0, 1/10/2010)

1.0 The need for preferred numbers

In the industry preferred numbers are used in order to standardize the number of
different sized product, while also meeting consumer demands. It becomes very
expensive for a factory to manufacture all sizes, and it is much more practical to
standardize on a number of sizes. Standardization leads to a reduction in cost.

2.0 Renard Series

In order to solve this problem, certain standard series were developed by the French
army engineer Col. Charles Renard who proposed in the 1870s a set of preferred
numbers for use within the metric system. His system was adopted in 1952 as
international standard ISO 3.
Renard numbers provide a ratio between consecutive sizes that can be used to
create a certain number of sizes within a decade, in the form of a geometric series.
For example an R5 series (Renard 5 series) provides five sizes per decade as
follows:

(ratio)5 = 10
ratio = = 1.6

Starting with a value of 1 gives the following series (with five sizes per decade):

1 1(1.6) 1(1.6)2 1(1.6)3 1(1.6)4 1(1.6)5

1 : 1.6 : 2.5 : 4 : 6.3 : 10

This series can be also be 10:16:25:40:63:100 or 100:160:250:400:630 and so on. It

is important to note that this is a geometric series rather than an arithmetic series. A
simple exercise will clearly show that an arithmetic series would not provide a
economic set of sizes.
If the designer feels that five sizes per decade is not sufficient, then he/she
can use 10 or 20 sizes per decade (by resorting to the R10 or even the R20 series.
It is worth nothing that all the elements in a R5 series will also exist within an
R10, R20 or R40 series, and that all the elements within a R10 series will exist within
an R20 or R40 series and so on. This is shown below for the R5 and R10 series.

Table 1: Elements of R5 and R10 series.

R5 1 1.6 2.5 4 6.3 10
R10 1 1.25 1.6 2.0 2.5 3.15 4 5 6.3 8 10

3.0 Application of preferred numbers in lift systems

The lift capacities and speeds follow the Renard series concept. For example, the lift
capacities follow an R10 series as follows (in kg):

630, 800, 1000, 1250, 1600, 2000, 2500

Copyright held by the author 2010: Dr. Lutfi R. Al-Sharif Page 1 of 2

Chapter 1d: Concept of Preferred Numbers 0908589 Selected Topics in
Mechatronics

Lift speeds also follow an R10 series as follows (in m/s):

0.63, 1.0, 1.25, 1.6, 2.0, 2.5, 3.1(3.0), 4.0, 5.0, 6.3(6.0), 8.0, 10

The speeds in brackets above are the actual used values as opposed to the correct
speed from R10 series. The preferred speeds and capacities are detailed in the
international standard ISO4190-1.

Copyright held by the author 2010: Dr. Lutfi R. Al-Sharif Page 2 of 2