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Physical Measurement Laboratory

Office of Weights and Measures

News and Updates

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NIST Metric Kitchen: Educational Website Launched

March 31, 2023

The NIST Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) Metric Program invites you to see what’s cooking in the NIST Metric Kitchen, a new educational website that

EVSE Fast Charging Network: Challenges for Calibration and Traceability

January 7, 2023

Updated: 03/31/23 Charging Your Electric Car: Ensuring Accuracy for EVSEs with Traceable Transfer Reference Meters Owners of electric vehicles are coming to

New Year’s Eve 2023 Marked the Retirement of the U.S. Survey Foot

January 6, 2023

At the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2023, the U.S. survey foot was deemed obsolete and the international foot (i.e., 1 foot = 0.3048 meter exactly)

NIST Office of Weights and Measures – National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program Partnership: New Faces and New Opportunities

January 5, 2023

The NIST Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) has long coordinated the accreditation of the State legal metrology laboratories through the OWM Recognition

SI Prefix Progress

January 4, 2023

In December 2022, the BIPM SI Brochure (9 th Edition, December 2022, V2.01) was published to include the four new International System of Units (SI) prefixes

Catch the Wave, SURF 2023, NIST OWM Undergraduate Researchers

Catch the Wave - NIST SURF for Career Success: Announcing 2023 Office of Weights and Measures Undergraduate Research Opportunities

December 14, 2022

Undergraduate students…are you looking for an extraordinary opportunity to propel your professional development and career forward? Well, there’s nothing quite

Cameras and equipment set up in the studio in front of a table

NIST Office of Weights and Measures Launches Studio 220

September 30, 2022

Lights, camera, action! The vision to expand training capabilities within the Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) IACET accredited Training Program has become

Graphic image with scale in front and person typing on a laptop in the background. Text on image reads: NIST Office of Weights and Measures, NIST SP 2200 Legal Metrology Publication Series.

NIST Office of Weights and Measures Launches New SP 2200 Legal Metrology Publication Series

September 29, 2022

In partnership with the NIST research library, the Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) has launched a new NIST Special Publication Series, SP 2200: Legal

Infographic comparing characteristics of a checker vs. an inspector

Quantity Versus Quality of Inspections – Taking Shortcuts

September 28, 2022

This article was originally published in March 2005 and has been revamped and re-published here. As weights and measures jurisdictions grapple with finding the

In-Person Training for Mulch and Soil Testing at the WWMA Annual Meeting

September 27, 2022

Now that we are attending meetings in-person again, this presents an opportunity for OWM staff to provide some of our training directly to our stakeholders

Group photo outside of MidMAP training attendees

Regional Measurement Assurance Program (RMAP) Back on the Move

September 26, 2022

The Laboratory Metrology Program is wrapping up this year’s Regional Measurement Assurance Program (RMAP) training for the State Weights and Measures Laboratory

Investigating Coriolis Mass Flow Meters as Field Reference Meters – Compressed Natural Gas Applications

June 30, 2022

Commercial metering systems are ubiquitous in the commercial marketplace (to dispense liquified products, from gas and water to food products and agricultural

Over 20,000 Propane Cylinders Tested Nationwide!

June 29, 2022

In the summer of 2021, the NIST Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) partnered with the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) and States to develop

OWM Featured on CNN Podcast and by Stephen Colbert of The Late Show

June 28, 2022

CNN’s Margins of Error podcast recently published an episode titled “Why Americans Won’t Give an Inch on Metric”. Host Harry Enten “goes the extra ‘yard’ to

Regional Measurement Assurance Program (RMAP) Returns to OWM’s In-Person Training

June 27, 2022

The NIST OWM’s Laboratory Metrology Program resumed in-person Regional Measurement Assurance Program (RMAP) training events after more than two years. Annual in

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2022 Annual OWM S&T and L&R Analysis Documents

June 24, 2022

The 2022 Annual OWM S&T Analysis and Executive Summary as well as the 2022 Annual OWM L&R Analysis and Executive Summary are now available on our OWM website

Digital NIST Stakeholder Workshop

June 16, 2022

NIST is anticipating future trends in metrology with the Digital NIST project. This will modernize transmission methods for calibration certificates and SRM

Welcome to our New NIST Director and Honorary NCWM President

June 1, 2022

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Laurie E. Locascio as the 17th Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Under Secretary for Standards

The Future is Charged: U.S. Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

March 29, 2022 - September 30, 2022

Please see the Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment Program on the NIST OWM website for any current updates on NIST standards, measurement services, and training

Photo of a student working in the laboratory

We're Back... OWM Welcomes Laboratory Metrology Students to Campus!

March 28, 2022

NIST Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) resumed limited in-person laboratory metrology training at the Gaithersburg campus starting on January 31, 2022. We

Graphic Image of Weights and Measurements Featured Collection

Discover NIST Education Resources!

March 27, 2022

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites learners of all ages to explore and discover a wide variety of Science, Technology

World Metrology Day Poster Graphic Image

Celebrate World Metrology Day on May 20

March 26, 2022

“World Metrology Day is an annual celebration of the signature of the Meter Convention on 20 May 1875 by representatives of seventeen nations. The Convention

Icon of clipboard with check marks and an x

OWM Launches New Metrology Training Needs Survey

March 25, 2022

The Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) is a relatively small office at NIST, but has a big footprint in the weights and measures community. With just over 20

NIST Partners with NCWM and States for a National Survey on 20 lb Cylinders of LPG (Propane)

January 3, 2022 - June 1, 2023

Successful Completion of 2022 National Survey on 20 lb LPG (Propane) Cylinders NIST Office of Weights and Measures (OWM), the National Conference on Weights and

Worth the Weight: New International Guidelines Published for Manufacturing Load Cells

April 16, 2018

At the heart of every electronic weighing instrument is a device called a load cell, which takes a mechanical force and turns it into an electronic signal

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