One of the most common questions asked by clients when purchasing scales is whether or not they require the scale to be NMI trade approved/trade certified/stamped by weights and measures. The answer isn't always a simple straight forward one and requires knowing the exact circumstances that the client is using the scale for. 

First of there were major changes to laws governing this aspect of weighing equipment Australia wide in 2012 when the federal government body N.M.I. or National Measurement Institute took over from the state run Weights & Measures departments. This brought in new laws that then applied in every state of Australia.

For those that don't already know, products sold by weight in Australia to another reseller or to an end customer must be weighed on a trade approved scale and be verified legal for trade use by an authorised person. This tweaking of the Weights & Measures Act saw a re-defining of when an operator required trade approved and when they didn't. A generalisation of these new rules are as follows:

If you are buying or selling a product by weight that weight must be determined on a trade approved scale. This rule applies for all random weight products so for instance, fruit & veg, butchers, delis, supermarkets etc  must use Verified Trade Approved scales. For manufacturers that produce a pre-packaged product with a fixed weight printed on the packaging they do NOT require a trade approved scale.

Keep in mind that this doesn't mean you are now ok to use a poor quality scale for use in production facilities. Ensuring your fixed weight product weights are correct is still very important as the fines for providing under-weight fixed weight items to supermarkets and end users can be extremely costly in NMI penalties and also in the form of a product recall from a major supermarket.

A trade approved scale is a scale that has had a sample model submitted to NMI for inspection and assessment. It is a costly exercise for a scale distributor in Australia but it lets purchasers of scales know that this scale that has passed and recieved a pattern approval (NMI number affixed to all trade approved scales) performs to a very high standard and will do for many years. You cannot purchase a scale overseas and use it for trade use in Australia.

The second significant change was that the 2 year period of validity was removed. (no longer mandatory to verify your scales every two years). Scales now only need to be re-verified when they are supplied to a client, adjusted or repaired. Some QA systems insist that scales be verified every two years still but that is a QA requirement and is not a legal requirement. The only exception to this are weighbridges which by law must still be verified every year.

Perth Scale & Slicer Service supply a very large range of trade approved scales and we are an NMI appointed Licensee for the verification of Trade Approved weighing scales and trade masses.

If you want to learn more about the NMI requirements for your business then please visit the NMI website here