By Thomas Dunbar, FCSC, RSW, CSI
When manufacturers provide technical documentation for their products, they are giving a tool to the specification writer for specifying those same materials. The two main documents on which specifiers rely are technical product data sheets and master guide specifications sections. The first is often the initial exposure a specifier has to a product, so it is important it delivers the information needed to allow the design team to make educated decisions.

Technical product data sheets come in many forms. Some are randomly arranged, and others follow specific formats to present the information in a standard arrangement. From a specifier’s perspective, it is much easier to work with something that organizes the required info in a familiar form. Having something in a standard format makes it easier to do comparisons with other products and saves the specifier time; it also ultimately saves money for the client or owner of the facility being constructed. If manufacturers are going to provide this type of tool, why not make it the best tool that it can be, and provide something that makes the specifier’s life easier?

Of course, this is not just companies being altruistic—if their technical data sheets are disorganized, it makes it more difficult for the specifier to compare their products to other competitors’, possibly prejudicing them against the product or company (although no one will ever admit to such a bias).

If there are companies who do not want their products compared to others when they are already specified, it would behoove them to remember at some point, the shoe will be on the other foot one day, it will be the manufacturer trying to get a product into a project manual as a substitute for something already specified. In this situation, the company would want the specifier to quickly and clearly see their offering meets or exceeds all the technical criteria.

The most prevalent format for technical product data sheets in the North America was originally developed by CSI as Spec-Data. (Copyright is now held in the United States by CMD and in Canada by Construction Specifications Canada [CSC]). It has a 10-part format that includes the following articles:

1. Product Name.
2. Manufacturer.
3. Product Description (includes a basic description, materials and finishes, dimensions and capacities, etc., as well as product limitations and benefits).
4. Technical Data (includes any applicable standards, approvals, and any environmental considerations such as use of recycled products).
5. Installation (includes storage and handling requirements).
6. Availability and Costs.
7. Warranty.
8. Maintenance.
9. Technical Services.
10. Filing Systems.

The Spec-Data system is easily adaptable for all construction products.

CSC also has a technical data sheet format called ProductFormat, which aligns more or less with SectionFormat (discussed later in this article), but it is not nearly as widely used or accepted in the industry as the Spec-Data system.