[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 122 (Tuesday, June 26, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35034-35035]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-12333]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology


Notice of Public Meeting of the National Conference on Weights 
and Measures

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notification of the 92nd Annual Meeting of the National 
Conference on Weights and Measures, July 2007.

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SUMMARY: The Annual Meeting of the 92nd National Conference on Weights 
and Measures (NCWM) will be held July 8 to 12, 2007, in Snowbird, Utah. 
The meetings are open to the public, but registration with the NCWM is 
required. The NCWM is an organization of state, county, and city 
weights and measures officials and includes representatives of 
business, federal agencies, and members of the private sector which 
come together to develop standards related to weights and measures 
technology, administration, and enforcement. Pursuant to (15 U.S.C. 
272(b)(6)), the Weights and Measures Division of the National Institute 
of Standards and Technology (NIST) supports the NCWM as one of the 
forums it uses to solicit comments and recommendations on revising or 
updating a variety of publications related to legal metrology. NIST 
promotes uniformity among the states in laws, regulations, methods, and 
testing equipment that comprise the regulatory control of commercial 
weighing and measuring devices and other practices used in trade and 
commerce. Publication of this notice on the NCWM's behalf is undertaken 
as a public service; NIST does not endorse, approve, or recommend any 
of the proposals contained in this notice or in the publications of the 
NCWM mentioned below. Please see NCWM Publication 16 which contains 
meeting agendas and schedules, registration forms and hotel information 
at http://www.ncwm.net.

DATES: July 8-12, 2007.

ADDRESSES: The Snowbird Resort, Highway 210, Little Cottonwood Canyon, 
Snowbird, Utah 84092.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The following are brief descriptions of some 
of the items that will be considered at the meeting. All items are 
voting items unless specified otherwise. Comments will be taken on 
these and other issues during public hearings on July 8 and 9, 2007. At 
this stage, the items are proposals that will be considered for 
adoption at this meeting. The agenda also includes committee work 
sessions that will take place after the hearings during which the 
Committees will finalize the proposals for NCWM consideration at its 
voting sessions on July 11 and 12, 2007. The Committees may also 
withdraw or carryover items that need additional development.
    The Specifications and Tolerances Committee will consider proposed 
amendments to NIST Handbook 44, ``Specifications, Tolerances, and other 
Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices (NIST 
Handbook 44).'' Those items address weighing and measuring devices used 
in commercial measurement applications, that is, devices that are 
normally used to buy from or sell to the general public or used for 
determining the quantity of product sold among businesses. Issues on 
the agenda of the NCWM Laws and Regulations Committee relate to 
proposals to amend NIST Handbook 130, ``Uniform Laws and Regulations in 
the area of legal metrology, and engine fuel quality,'' which cover the 
method of sale of commodities regulations and engine fuel labeling. 
This notice contains information about significant items on the NCWM 
Committee agendas so many issues are not presented in this notice. As a 
result, the following items are not consecutively numbered.

NCWM Specifications and Tolerances Committee

    The following items are proposals to amend NIST Handbook 44:

General Code

    Item 310-1. G.S.2. Facilitation of Fraud. The proposal modifies the 
section to clarify that the prohibition against facilitating fraud 
applies to the electronically programmed and coded components of 
weighing and measuring devices to reduce electronic manipulation or 
alteration. Examples of fraud issues in the past few years have 
involved: (1) Users altering, manipulating, or interfering with 
software interfaced or installed in equipment; (2) microprocessor 
issues (e.g., users hiding extra electronic pulsers in gas pumps and 
taximeters); and (3) users developing software programs that permit the 
manipulation of motor truck scale data used to generate weighmaster 
certificates. The Committee is proposing to update the requirement by 
adding terms to address

[[Page 35035]]

electronic and software-based technology that may be fraudulently used 
today.
    Item 310-3. Multiple Weighing or Measuring Elements that Share a 
Common Provision for Sealing. This proposal would require new 
commercial weighing and measuring devices with multiple weighing or 
measuring elements to be equipped with one of several means to indicate 
when changes are made to individual elements that affect metrological 
parameters.

Scales Code

    Item 320-6. Shift Tests (Off-Center Load Tests) for Bench or 
Counter and Other Scales. This proposal is intended to clarify the 
appropriate shift test pattern and test loads for scales currently 
designated as bench/counter scales and other platform-type scales. 
Currently, bench and counter scale shift tests are conducted with a 
one-half capacity test load centered successively at four points 
equidistant between the center and the front, left, back, and right 
edges of the load-receiving element. Shift tests for other platform 
scales are conducted with a one-half capacity test load centered, as 
nearly as possible, successively at the center of each quadrant. The 
proposal eliminates references to bench and counter scales and 
prescribes that the shift test load and test pattern used for those and 
other scales (except for livestock scales) be based on the scale's 
nominal capacity. For livestock scales the proposal clarifies, but does 
not change, the existing shift test requirements.
    Item 320-7. Dynamic Monorail Systems. This proposal clarifies that 
the device should be tested while in normal use and that the two extra 
carcasses referenced in the current language are only for replacement 
purposes (e.g., in cases where carcass weight loss occurs as a result 
of influences other than from the device being tested) and are not 
intended to replace erroneous device readings found testing. The 
proposal also includes a requirement that certified weights be used for 
a static test of the reference scale.

Liquid-Measuring Device Code

    Item 330-2. Display of Quantity and Total Price in Aviation 
Refueling Applications. This is a proposal to revise requirements 
related to the display of delivered quantity and total price for liquid 
measuring devices (typically those used at small or midsized airports) 
to fuel small aircraft.
    Item 330-4. Temperature Compensation. This is an information item 
that is presented to solicit comments to the Committee regarding 
proposals to include requirements in Handbook 44 to permit liquid 
measuring devices to be equipped with the automatic means to allow them 
to deliver products on the basis of temperature compensated volume. 
(See also Item 232-1 below under the Laws and Regulations Committee.)

Vehicle Tank Meter Code

    Item 331-1. Temperature Compensation. This is a proposal to add 
requirements to Handbook 44 to allow vehicle-mounted measuring devices 
to be equipped with the automatic means to allow them to deliver 
products on the basis of temperature compensated volume. (See also Item 
232-1 below under the Laws and Regulations Committee.)

NCWM Laws and Regulations Committee

    The following voting items are proposals to amend the Method of 
Sale of Commodities Regulation in NIST Handbook 130:
    Item 232-1. Temperature Compensation for Refined Petroleum Products 
and Other Fuels. The proposal allows sellers the option of offering 
engine fuels for sale on the basis of automatic temperature 
compensation at all levels of distribution. Compensation is permitted 
in many states at the wholesale and other levels and is required in 
many states for some meters used to deliver Liquefied Petroleum Gas. 
This proposal defines the reference temperature for sales by the liter 
or gallon (or fractions thereof), and allows the state weights and 
measures directors to grant exceptions to the requirements for some 
devices. One provision requires full-disclosure of the method of sale 
on dispensers and street signs to ensure value comparison and fair 
competition among sellers.
    Item 232-2. Fuel Ethanol Labeling. This item requires the 
identification and labeling of ethanol blends on engine fuel dispensers 
at retail service stations.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carol Hockert, Chief, NIST, Weights 
and Measures Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 2600, Gaithersburg, MD 
20899-2600, telephone (301) 975-5507, or at [email protected].

    Dated: June 19, 2007.
James Turner,
Deputy Director.
 [FR Doc. E7-12333 Filed 6-25-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P