Technical Translation in Mons: SHAPE/NATO, ENGIE, UMONS and Military Documentation

Mons hosts the headquarters of NATO in Europe (SHAPE), whose military technical documentation is governed by strict STANAG standards. The city also hosts ENGIE Electrabel, the University of Mons (UMONS)and players in industrial automation such as Technord. Technical translation in Mons thus covers radically different worlds: classified defence documentation, smart grid IEC 61850, IEEE academic publications and industrial SCADA manuals.

Mons: crossroads between NATO, energy and academic research

Located in Casteau, a few kilometres from Mons, the SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) is the supreme command of the allied forces in Europe. Its operation generates significant volumes of military technical documentation: equipment manuals, specifications of weapon systems, logistics procedures, exercise reports, all governed by NATO standards (STANAG) and very strict confidentiality requirements.

In parallel, ENGIE Electrabel maintains a significant presence in the Mons region. The energy transition involves a dense technical documentation around smart grid technologies and the integration of renewable energy into the distribution networks. The standards IEC 61850 (communication in the substations), IEC 61968 (integration of distribution management systems) and CIM (Common Information Model) constitute the normative reference corpus for this sector, in rapid evolution since the European directive on the internal market of electricity.

The UMONS (University of Mons) and its Polytechnic Facultyconstitute a third pole of technical documentary production. The researchers of the Polytechnic Faculty publish in English-language journals indexed by IEEE, which generates needs for translation or technical proofreading in English. Their collaborative projects with international industrial and academic partners also require multilingual deliverables.

Technord, specialised in industrial automation, produces manuals of SCADA systems, documentation of programmable logic controllers (Siemens PCS 7, Schneider Electric) and HMI interfaces (Human-Machine Interface) in a context of industry 4.0. The associated software and hardware documentation must be translated into French, Dutch and English for the Belgian and international industrial clients of the company.

NATO military documentation: STANAG, AQAP and weapon systems

The STANAG (Standardization Agreements) are the standardisation agreements of NATO which govern the interoperability between the armed forces of the member countries. Each STANAG covers a precise field: communication, logistics, armament, training, infrastructure. The translation of documentation referencing STANAGs requires in-depth knowledge of the NATO military terminology and of the organisation of this documentation.

The standards AQAP (Allied Quality Assurance Publications) define the quality requirements for the NATO contractors. The AQAP 2110 (NATO requirements for quality assurance in design, development and production) and the AQAP 2120 (requirements in production) are the two most commonly referenced standards in the defence contracts. These documents and the associated conformity documentation must be available in English and, depending on the client nations, in other NATO languages.

The translation of classified documentation NATO CONFIDENTIAL or higher requires a specific security arrangement: the translators must hold an equivalent national security clearance, and the exchanges must take place via approved encrypted channels. For documents NATO RESTRICTED, the requirements are less constraining but nevertheless require robust confidentiality agreements and suitable documentary management procedures.

Smart grid and energy documentation: IEC 61850 and CIM

The deployment of smart grid technologies by ENGIE Electrabel and the Belgian distribution network operators generates a dense technical documentation. The standard IEC 61850, international standard for communication in the electrical substations, is drafted in English and must be translated or adapted for the French-speaking and Dutch-speaking engineers and technicians who implement it in the field.

The CIM (Common Information Model), defined by the IEC 61970 and extended by the IEC 61968 for the distribution systems, provides a standardised data model for the exchange of information between the management systems of the electrical network. The integration specifications based on the CIM are drafted in English and require a translation into French for the Belgian project teams.

The IEC 62351 (security of communications for the automation systems of the energy networks) is a complementary standard of growing importance in the context of cybersecurity of critical infrastructures. It is directly linked to the regulatory European framework of the directive NIS2, which imposes security requirements on the operators of essential infrastructures.

UMONS scientific publications and Technord SCADA manuals

The Polytechnic Faculty of the UMONS produces academic publications in varied technical fields: electrical engineering, automation and robotics, computer science, materials science, civil and environmental engineering. The publication in IEEE journals (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) requires writing in academic English, with rigorous terminological precision in each speciality.

Our translators specialised in electrical engineering and in automation ensure the translation and the proofreading of these publications, respecting the IEEE conventions of scientific drafting (use of the standardised IEEE terms, formatting of the references, precision of the abstracts). They also bring an added value in the English-language reformulation of the contributions of researchers whose mother tongue is not English.

For Technord, the manuals of the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and DCS (Distributed Control System) systems require an expertise at the interface between industrial automation, real-time computing and the business field of the client (chemicals, energy, agri-food). The HMI interfaces (labels, alarms, operator messages) must be translated with extreme concision because the display space is often limited.

Timeframes and rates for technical translation in Mons

BIM documentation and Eurocodes for civil engineering in Mons

The civil engineering sector in the Mons region uses the Eurocodesas calculation reference frameworks: Eurocode 2 (concrete), Eurocode 3 (steel), Eurocode 7 (geotechnics) and Eurocode 8 (seismic). The associated project documentation - calculation notes, geotechnical reports, technical specifications of public contracts - is often drafted in French and must be translated into Dutch or English for the cross-border partnerships or the international clients.

The BIM (Building Information Modeling), progressively imposed in the Belgian public contracts via the framework SPW (Service Public de Wallonie), generates BIM conventions, BIM execution plans and data exchange protocols that require a precise terminology, in particular for the exchanges with Dutch-speaking partners or with international construction companies.