Tasks
Topic of department 1.1 "Mass" are the tools used for the dissemination and use of the mass units – weighing instruments. Balances used in trade are under governmental control since antiquity to prevent deception. Today these instruments are presumably the mostly regulated instruments at all.
Even in the 19th century weighing instruments were divided into "automatic" and "non-automatic" weighing instruments. This distinction can be found as well in the today’s European regulations concerning those instruments. The automatic weighing instruments are regulated in the so-called measuring instrument directive, MID (2014/32/EU), whereas the non-automatic weighing instruments have their own directive, the NAWID (2014/31/EU). Both directives were transposed into national law via the new Mess- und Eichgesetz and determine under what preconditions weighing instruments may be put into use and used in the framework of legal metrology.
The department realizes tests and conformity assessments of weighing instruments and respective modules in the framework of the conformity assessment body of PTB (KBS). This includes tests and assessments on the basis of the mentioned European directives, but as well on the basis of international recommendations (OIML) and the German verification law (Mess- und Eichgesetz). Requests can be sent to 
waagen(at)ptb.de.
To meet the requirements of conformity assessments and guidance of interested parties (verification authorities, ministries, manufacturers etc.) the department is active in respective bodies of legal metrology (e.g. WELMEC, OIML) and national and international standardization.
Research actitivies/highlights
Digitalisation of Certificates of Conformity
Automatic data transfer from old documents, plausibility checks of entries and simply a little less paperwork: digitalisation makes working with certificates of conformity more efficient. This is because digital certificates are created quickly, are available throughout the entire life cycle of a product and simplify the exchange of data between all bodies involved. As part of the "QI-Digital Initiative" funded by the BMWK, ways to digitally transform various elements of the quality infrastructure (QI) in Germany are being examined and developed. We are designing and testing digital Certificates of Conformity prototypes in the QI Digital pilot project 
Reliable Hydrogen Refuelling Station.
Only pay for the fuel you have filled up with, and do so safely as usual - even if the petrol pump may soon be filling up with hydrogen instead of petrol. This matter of course is based on several regulations that require conformity assessments, including the Measurement and Calibration Act and the European Explosion Protection Directive. In future, a joint "Digital Certificate of Conformity" (d-CoC) could be created and sent out that takes both regulations into account. To this end, we at PTB are developing a data structure for the certification information in accordance with DIN EN ISO/IEC 17065, as well as tools for creating, editing and viewing the certificate information. Existing digital "tools" are used as much as possible. The digital data structure will ultimately be submitted as a draft standard.
For digital certificates such as the d-CoC, the incoming data must be machine-readable, ideally even machine-interpretable. Which means it must be recorded in a standardised template structure. Later, the data available in this way can be automatically transferred and plausibility checks can be carried out more quickly and easily. In addition, the documents should be made available to users, such as manufacturers or calibration authorities, in human-readable form.
Further information can be found here.
