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Incorporating the Examination Procedures Outline for Commercial Weighing and Measuring Devices

State of California Department of Food and Agriculture Division of Measurement Standards 6790 Florin Perkins Road, Suite 100

Sacramento, CA 95828-1812 www.cdfa.ca.gov/dms/

DEVICE ENFORCEMENT MANUAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction i Basic Considerations Associated with the Enforcement of Device Code 1 Weighing and Measuring Systems Interfaced to Computer Systems 5 Directory of DMS Policy Letters, Notices and EPO References Pertaining 9 to Weighing and Measuring Devices EPO NUMBER: 1. Newly Installed Weighing Devices 2. Indicators - Automatic and Nonautomatic 3. Tolerances - Use of Tables T.1.1 and 6 4. Scale Test Weight Positions - Shift Test 4-A. Substitution/Strain-Load Tests 5. Electromagnetic Interference - Electronic Devices 6.* 7. Weight Truck Calibration Guidelines

Weighing Devices

8. Computing Scales - Electronic and Mechanical 8-A. Basic Computing Scale 8-B. Point-of-Sale Systems

9. Crane Scales 10. Equal-Arm Scales - Automatic and Nonautomatic Indicating 11. Hanging Scales 12. Hopper Scales - Stationary 13. Hopper Scales - Vehicle Mounted Electronic 14. Livestock and Animal Scales 15. Monorail Scales 16. Platform Scales (counter or bench, floor and dormant scales) 17. Prescription and Jewelers Scales 18. Automatic Bulk Weighing Systems 19. Railway Track Scales 20. Vehicle Scales 21. Belt-Conveyor Scales 22. Weights, Equal-Arm and Counterpoise 23. Postal and Parcel Post Scales/Weight Classifiers

23-A. Postal and Parcel Post Scales 23-B. Weight Classifiers

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DEVICE ENFORCEMENT MANUAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EPO NUMBER:

Measuring Devices

25. Newly Installed Liquid-Measuring Devices 26. Retail Motor Fuel Devices 26-A. Basic Dispensers 26-B. Blended Product Dispensers 26-C. Gas/Oil Mixing Dispensers 26-D. Money Acceptance Consoles 26-E. Remote Consoles (keylock, card acceptor devices, and receipt/ticket printers) 26-F. Vapor Recovery Systems - Field Compliance Testing 27. Wholesale Meters 28.* 29. Vehicle Tank Meters - Pump and Gravity Discharge 30. Liquefied Petroleum Gas Liquid Meters 31. Hydrocarbon Gas Vapor Meters 32. CNG Motor Fuel Dispensers 32-A. Basic Dispensers 32-B. Remote Consoles (key/codelock, card acceptor devices, receipt/ticket printers) 33. Water Meters 33-A. Domestic Cold Water Meters 33-B. Batch Plant Water Meters 34. Farm Milk Tanks 35. Fabric Measuring Devices 36. Wire and Cordage Measuring Devices 37. Odometers (passenger, vehicles, trucks and buses) 38. Taximeters 38-A. Basic Taximeters 38-B. Fifth-Wheel and Road Simulator Test Procedures 38-C. Measured Course (Road Tests) 39. Electric Meters

Customer Operated Devices

50. Self-Operated Recycling Materials, Devices and Systems 51. Water Dispensers

* Reserved.

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INTRODUCTION The following Device Enforcement Program Manual (incorporates the Examination Procedures Outline for Commercial Weighing and Measures Devices) has been prepared as a guide for determining if devices are correct and suitable for commercial service. Each outline describes what is considered a minimum examination, preceding official action. References to sections of the California Business and Professions Code (B&P Code) or the California Code of Regulations (CCR) - Field Reference Manual have been included for easier location of specific wording. The CCR Section 4000 adopts the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Handbook 44 (HB 44) with exceptions. The section suffix numbers in brackets [1.10, 2.20, 3.30, etc.] direct you to the specific portion of the CCR or HB 44. Exceptions to HB 44 in the CCR are numbered in the 4002 series and are shaded, bordered, and show the page number where found. Sections in the CCR that apply to devices that are not included in HB 44 (e.g., electric watt-hour meters) still maintain the old numbering series. Enforcement action (Notice of Violations, Administrative Actions and Citations) should include the appropriate Business and Professions Code authority section or sections and include the following:

Examples:

1. From HB 44 without exceptions - B&P Code 12107; CCR 4000; NIST HB 44, 1.10, G-UR.4.1

2. Exceptions might look like -

B&P Code 12107; CCR 2.20, 4002.2, d

3. Not in HB 44 - B&P Code 12107; CCR 4027, N.4

References pertaining to DMS Policy Letters and Notices aid in clarification and are found in the back of the manual prior to the EPO references. Safety Guidelines are included for your reference, as well as specific safety reminders throughout the outline on individual subjects. Periodic changes to the procedures will be made to accommodate code changes and new developments in device technology.

Suggestions for improving this manual are welcome at any time.

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BASIC CONSIDERATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ENFORCEMENT OF DEVICE CODE REGULATIONS

Uniformity of Requirements - Discussion

Acceptance and Maintenance Tolerances: Tolerances for commercial equipment are the limits of inaccuracy officially permissible. Tolerances are established, therefore, to fix the range of inaccuracy within which equipment will be officially tested and sealed.

Acceptance Tolerances are applied to new equipment (prior to its first commercial use)

and equipment undergoing type approval. These tolerances are smaller than (usually one-half of) maintenance tolerances.

Maintenance Tolerances thus provide an additional range of inaccuracy within which

equipment will be accepted on subsequent tests, permitting a limited amount of deterioration before the equipment will be officially rejected for inaccuracy and before reconditioning will officially be required.

Theory of Tolerances: Tolerance values are so fixed that the permissible errors are sufficiently small that there is no serious injury to either the buyer or the seller of commodities, yet not so small as to make manufacturing or maintenance costs of equipment disproportionately high. Obviously, the manufacturer must know what tolerances his equipment is required to meet so that he can manufacture economically. His equipment must be good enough to satisfy commercial needs, but should not be subject to such stringent tolerance values as to make it unreasonably costly, complicated, or delicate. Tolerances and Adjustments: Tolerances are primarily accuracy criteria for use by the regulatory official. However, when equipment is being adjusted for accuracy, either initially or following repair, it must be adjusted as close as is practical to zero error (CCR 4000; HB 44, 1.10, G-UR.4.3). Equipment found to be in error, predominately in the favor of the owner/ user, is not acceptable (CCR 4000; HB 44, 1.10, G-UR.4.1.).

Inspection of Commercial Devices

Inspection Versus Testing: Although the term inspection is frequently used to include everything that the weights and measures official has to do in connection with commercial equipment, it is useful to limit the scope of that term primarily to examinations made to determine compliance with design, maintenance, and user requirements. Testing then obviously becomes those operations carried out to determine the accuracy of value or performance of equipment under examination.

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Necessity for Inspection

It is not enough merely to determine that the errors of equipment do not exceed the appropriate tolerances. Specifications and user requirements are as important as tolerance requirements and should be enforced. Inspection is particularly important and should be carried out with unusual thoroughness whenever new equipment is being brought into service for the first time. Many times at a given device location, it is beneficial to bring along appropriate copy(s) of type approval(s) for:

1. Specific test considerations. 2. Specific equipment compatibility/interface considerations (e.g., approved only with a

certain scale, certain software applications, RAM, specific load cells, etc.). 3. Provision for sealing - methods vary from physical seals to audit trail information. See

Methods of Sealing below.

Devices initially inspected/tested, and then retested a year later, may have had nonapproved equipment, computer software, or alterations made which would make them nonapproved and could facilitate the perpetration of fraud. These conditions are often found during the pre-test inspection of a device prior to the actual test.

Methods of Sealing

In years past, a security seal involved placing a lead and wire or pressure sensitive seal over the access plate to the calibration and/or parameter adjustments (many devices are still sealed in the same manner). However, with the advent of computers and remote configuration capability through a modem or access lines, the above mentioned functions that affect the metrological aspects of a device must be secured through audit trail methods.

The need to seal some features depends upon the ease with which the feature or the selection of the feature can be used to facilitate fraud and the likelihood that the use of the feature will result in fraud not being detected.

Examples of an au