[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 245 (Friday, December 19, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77622-77623]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-30247]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology


National Conference on Weights and Measures 94th Interim Meeting

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Interim Meeting of the 94th National Conference on Weights 
and Measures (NCWM) will be held January 11 to 14, 2009. 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. The meetings are open to the public but registration is 
required. Registration information is stated in the FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section below.

DATES: The meeting will be held on January 11-14, 2009.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the Hilton Daytona Beach 
Oceanfront Resort, 100 North Atlantic Avenue, Daytona Beach, Florida 
32118.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carol Hockert, Chief, NIST, Weights 
and Measures Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 2600, Gaithersburg, MD 
20899-2600 or by telephone (301) 975-5507 or by e-mail at 
[email protected]. Please see the NCWM Publication 15, which 
contains detailed meeting agendas, registration forms and hotel 
reservation information, at http://www.ncwm.net or http://www.nist.gov/owm on the Internet.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NCWM is an organization of weights and 
measures officials of the states, counties, and cities of the United 
States, federal agencies, and private sector representatives. These 
meetings bring together government officials and representatives of 
business, industry, trade associations, and consumer organizations on 
subjects related to the field of weights and measures technology, 
administration and enforcement. NIST participates to

[[Page 77623]]

promote 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.
    The following are brief descriptions of some of the significant 
agenda items that will be considered along with other issues at the 
NCWM Interim Meeting. Comments will be taken on these and other issues 
during several public comment sessions. At this stage, the items are 
proposals. This meeting also includes work sessions in which the 
Committees may also accept comments and where they will finalize 
recommendations for NCWM consideration and possible adoption at its 
Annual Meeting to be held July 12 to 16, 2009, in San Antonio, Texas. 
The Committees may withdraw or carryover items that need additional 
development.
    The Specifications and Tolerances Committee (S&T 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 applications, that is, devices 
that are normally used to buy from or sell to the public or used for 
determining the quantity of product sold among businesses.
    Issues on the agenda of the NCWM Laws and Regulations Committee 
(L&R Committee) relate to proposals to amend NIST Handbook 130, 
``Uniform Laws and Regulations in the area of legal metrology and 
engine fuel quality'' and NIST Handbook 133 ``Checking the Net Contents 
of Packaged Goods.''
    This notice contains information about significant items on the 
NCWM Committee agendas, but does not include all agenda items. 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.8. Provision for Sealing Electronic Adjustable 
Components, G-S.8.1. Access to Calibration and Configuration 
Adjustments, and G-S.8.2.--The S&T Committee will consider a proposal 
to add new requirements to G-S.8. intended to improve the security of 
access to the calibration and other configuration features on weighing 
or measuring devices. The purpose of the proposal is to ensure that 
prohibited features cannot be activated or that the accuracy of the 
device is altered after an official applies security seals or approved 
means of providing security.
    Item 310-5. G-T.1. Acceptance Tolerances--The S&T Committee will 
consider a proposal to amend regulations that specify when officials 
are to apply acceptance tolerances to weighing and measuring devices 
after service personnel or users have made metrological adjustments and 
resealed the instrument. The proposed amendment would require that 
officials apply acceptance tolerances if they test the device within 30 
days following any adjustment that relates to the accuracy or other 
performance characteristic of a device.

Scales Code

    Item 320-3. S.1.7. Automatic Zero-Setting Mechanism (AZSM)--The S&T 
Committee will consider a proposal to define the acceptable operating 
parameters of the zero-setting functions used on some electronic 
weighing devices. These functions automatically maintain a scale's 
indications at zero when no load is on the device. Existing NIST 
Handbook 44 requirements prohibit some of the zero-setting functions 
found on weighing devices designed and sold for use in other countries 
when those devices are used in commercial applications in the U.S. 
marketplace. The proposal will closely align the U.S. requirements with 
international recommendations published by the International 
Organization for Legal Metrology (OIML).

Liquid-Measuring Devices Code

    Item 330-1. Temperature Compensation for Liquid-Measuring Devices 
Code.--This is a proposal to add provisions to Handbook 44 to allow 
retail motor-fuel dispensers to be equipped with the automatic means to 
deliver product with the volume compensated to a reference temperature. 
(See also Item 232-1 below under the Laws and Regulations Committee)

NCWM Laws and Regulations Committee

    The following items are proposals to amend NIST Handbook 130:

Method of Sale of Commodities Regulation

    Item 232-1. Automatic Temperature Compensation for Petroleum 
Products.--The L&R Committee will consider several proposals that would 
allow temperature compensation to be made on sales of engine fuels at 
the retail level. Most of the proposals would allow compensation to be 
performed only if certain information is provided to consumers and 
other conditions are met by the seller.
    Developing Item 270-7. Method of Sale and Engine Fuel Quality 
Requirements for Hydrogen.--The L&R Committee will consider a proposal 
to establish a uniform method of sale for hydrogen when it is offered 
for sale at the retail level as a vehicle fuel. A separate proposal to 
identifying preliminary minimum fuel quality standards will also be 
reviewed.
    Developing Item 270-8. Wood Flavoring Chips.--The L&R Committee 
will consider a proposal to revise the current method of sale 
regulation on flavoring chips by adding guidance on the appropriate 
units of measure to be used on small packages.

Uniform Engine Fuel and Automotive Lubricants Regulation

    Item 237-1. Gasoline and Gasoline Oxygenate Blends.--The Fuel and 
Lubricants Subcommittee of the L&R Committee will present a proposed 
revision to the requirements that certain blends must meet under NIST 
Handbook 130.
    The following item is a proposal to amend NIST Handbook 133 
``Checking the Net Contents of Packaged Goods'':
    Item 260-1. Wet Tare Testing.--The L&R Committee will review a 
proposed editorial revision to the tare procedures in NIST Handbook 133 
to advise handbook users that effective October 9, 2008, the USDA 
regulations no longer permit wet tare procedures to be used in 
verifying the net quantity of contents of packages of meat and poultry 
that bear a USDA inspection seal.

    Dated: December 15, 2008.
Patrick Gallagher,
Deputy Director.
 [FR Doc. E8-30247 Filed 12-18-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P