Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt

On the weekly markets, the sellers like to add some merchandise. One potato more and the customer pays the kilo price, although the weighing instrument displays some additional grams. The customer who – satisfied with his bargain – wanders away with his potatoes takes it for granted that the weighing instrument has displayed the correct value.

This is ensured – and not only for weighing instruments but also for many other measuring instruments – by the regulations of the Verification Act. It is one of the Acts regulating Economy and is to provide the conditions for correct measurements in commercial transactions – to protect the private and industrial consumer. In addition it is to guarantee the reliability of measurements in health protection, industrial safety and environmental protection.

The Verification Act prescribes legal control for measuring instruments, whose reliability is in the interest of the public. However, before a measuring instrument is verified it must have been approved. If the measuring instrument has not been accepted for verification on account of its design and condition, PTB goes into action. The type approval of measuring instruments is among PTB's most important tasks assigned to it by law. About 20 laboratories work in this field in which PTB closely cooperates with the national metrology institutes of other states.

Some measuring instruments (volume meters made of glass, dosemeters for constancy tests and measuring containers for non-liquid products) need no longer be officially verified, but the manufacturer himself issues a declaration of conformity (verification by the manufacturer).