Why look for Details In Weights & Measures Approvals


Complying with weight and measure regulations has been mandatory in many countries for years. OIML, NTEP and MID approvals ensure the quality of your measuring systems.

Complying with weight and measure regulations has been
mandatory in many countries for years. OIML, NTEP and MID
approvals ensure the quality of your measuring systems.
When selecting a system, make sure the equipment does not
have any limitations for use as this can cost you a lot of money.
Approvals can have limitations
To be of value an approval needs to be valid for measuring the
goods you handle. A typical pitfall is measuring irregular shaped
parcels and pallets as if they were cubic. Many automatic systems
on the market are only approved to measure regular, solid shapes,
while in reality all shipments aren’t nice and square.
Before purchasing a dimensioning and weighing system, start by evaluating your goods. What shapes, sizes
and wrapping do you normally handle? Taking the time to rigorously analyze the offering on the market and how
well the system matches your needs, can be time well spent.
Which details to look for
Approvals contain a lot of information and technical details. The most important factors which can cause difficulties
concern the shipments’ shape and wrapping. Some technologies are not good enough for measuring irregular shapes
as accurately as required in legal for trade applications. This is normally due to the fact that the instrument cannot see
the whole parcel or pallet. This is illustrated under the section “Pallet with protrusions”.
Another challenge for some technology used is the capability of measuring black plastic and transparent surfaces
which is typical wrapping on pallets.
Here are some examples from approvals to illustrate these limitations:
• The instrument is used to calculate the dimensions of an opaque hexahedron object.
• Garment bags, sacks and other soft, flexible objects with non-cuboidal shapes are not suited for
measurement by the instrument
• Transparent objects and objects packed in transparent wrapping (e.g. bubble wrap plastic) are not suited
for this type of measuring
Note: Other words commonly used to describe regular shaped objects are: cuboidal, opaque hexadron, rectangular,
cubic