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.
