2016 Wyoming Code
TITLE 40 - TRADE AND COMMERCE
CHAPTER 10 - WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
SECTION 40-10-117 - Definitions.

40-10-117. Definitions.

(a) Repealed By Laws 2009, Ch. 191, § 2.

(b) As used in this chapter:

(i) "Accreditation" means a formal recognition by the national institute of standards and technology, as a laboratory that is competent to carry out specific tests or calibrations or types of tests or calibrations;

(ii) "Calibration" means a set of operations which establishes, under specified conditions, the relationship between values indicated by a measuring instrument or measuring system or values represented by a material measure, to the corresponding known values of a measurement;

(iii) "Commerce" means the buying and selling of goods;

(iv) "Commercial weighing and measuring equipment" means weighing and measuring devices commercially used or employed to establish the size, quantity, extent, area or measurements of goods purchased, offered or submitted for sale, hire or award, or in computing a basic charge or payment for services;

(v) "Condemned for repairs" means a weight or measure found to be incorrect and which, following policies set forth by the director, can be repaired. Weights or measures which are condemned for repair shall be marked as such and be sealed so that the weight or measure cannot be used and is made inoperable until all appropriate repairs are completed;

(vi) "Confiscation and seizure" means that an incorrect weight or measure is taken into custody by the department following procedures and policies set forth by the director. Weights or measures which are confiscated shall be marked as such and if possible shall be removed from the premises to the direct custody of the department;

(vii) "Correct" as used in connection with weights and measures means conformance to all applicable requirements of this act;

(viii) "Department" means the department of agriculture;

(ix) "Director" means the director of the department of agriculture or his duly authorized representative;

(x) "Field standard" means a physical standard that meets specifications and tolerances in the National Institute of Standards and Technology Handbook 105-series standards, is traceable to the reference or working standards through comparisons or using acceptable laboratory procedures as adopted by the National Conference on Weights and Measures and published in the United States Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology Handbook 143, "State Weights and Measures Laboratories Program Handbook," and is used in conjunction with commercial weighing and measuring equipment. All field standards may be defined by rule and regulation and shall be verified upon their initial receipt and as often thereafter as deemed necessary by the director;

(xi) "International system of units" means the modernized metric system as established in 1960 by the general conference on weights and measures as interpreted or modified for the United States by the secretary of commerce;

(xii) "Mass" means the same as "weight";

(xiii) "Net weight" means the weight of a commodity excluding any materials, substances or items not considered to be part of the commodity. Materials, substances or items not considered to be part of the commodity include, but are not limited to, containers, conveyances, bags, wrappers, packaging materials, labels, individual piece coverings, decorative accompaniments and coupons, except that packaging materials may be considered to be part of services such as shipping;

(xiv) "Package" means any commodity put up or packaged in any manner in advance of sale in units suitable for either wholesale or retail sale;

(xv) "Physical standard" means weights and measures that are traceable to the United States prototype standards supplied by the federal government, including, but not limited to, standards adopted by the United States department of the interior, bureau of land management applicable to onshore oil and gas leases, the United States federal energy regulatory commission, the United States department of transportation, the state of Wyoming public service commission, or approved as being satisfactory by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Physical standards shall be the state reference and working standards for weights and measures and shall be maintained in such calibration as prescribed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as demonstrated through laboratory accreditation or recognition;

(xvi) "Primary standards" means the physical standards of the state that serve as the legal reference from which all other standards and weights and measures are derived;

(xvii) "Random weight package" means a package that is one of a lot, shipment or delivery of packages of the same commodity with no fixed pattern of weights;

(xviii) "Recognition" means a formal recognition by the National Institute of Standards and Technology weights and measures division that a laboratory has demonstrated the ability to provide traceable measurement results and is competent to carry out specific tests or calibrations or specific types of tests or calibrations;

(xix) "Reference standard" means:

(A) A standard, generally of the highest metrological quality available at a given location, from which measurements made at that location are derived; or

(B) The physical standards of the state that serve as the legal reference from which all other standards for weights and measures within that state are derived.

(xx) "Registered service person" means an individual who for hire, award, commission or any other payment of any kind, installs, services, repairs or reconditions a commercial weighing or measuring device, and who is registered with the director;

(xxi) "Reject" means a weight or measure found to be incorrect, and following policies set forth by the director may be used until repaired. A weight or measure which is rejected shall be marked as such, and may be used for the period of time specified pursuant to rule and regulation;

(xxii) "Sale from bulk" means a sale of commodities in which the quantity is determined at the time of sale;

(xxiii) "Secondary standards" means the physical standards that are traceable to the primary standards through comparisons, using acceptable laboratory procedures, and used in the enforcement of weights and measures laws and regulations;

(xxiv) "Standard package" means a package that is one of a lot, shipment or delivery of packages of the same commodity with identical net contents declarations, such as, one (1) liter bottles or twelve (12) fluid ounce cans of carbonated soda, five hundred (500) gram or five (5) pound bags of sugar, one hundred (100) meter or three hundred (300) foot packages of rope;

(xxv) "Traceability" means the result of a measurement or the value of a standard which can be verified as correct when compared with a national or international standard;

(xxvi) "Uncertainty" means a parameter associated with the result of a measurement that characterizes the dispersion of the values that could reasonably be attributed to the measurement;

(xxvii) "Verification" means the formal evaluation of a standard or device against the specifications and tolerances for determining conformance;

(xxviii) "Weight" as used in connection with any commodity or service means net weight. When a commodity is sold by drained weight, the term means net drained weight. When used in this chapter, "weight" and "mass" have the same meaning;

(xxix) "Weight and measure" means weights and measures of every kind, instruments and devices for weighing and measuring, and any appliance or accessory associated with such instruments or devices;

(xxx) "Working standard" means:

(A) A standard that is usually calibrated against a reference standard and is used routinely to calibrate or check material measures, measuring instruments or reference materials; or

(B) The physical standards that are traceable to the reference standards through comparisons, using acceptable laboratory procedures and used in the enforcement of weights and measures laws and regulations.

(xxxi) "This act" or "this chapter" means W.S. 40-10-117 through 40-10-136.