Source: US Government research organizations
Participants must have successfully completed the newly redesigned (2 week) Mass Course or the older Mass Seminar AND Intermediate Seminar. State laboratory participants must have successfully completed all required Laboratory Auditing Program problems. All participants should have evidence of successfully completing mass proficiency testing (at a level higher than Class F, or OIML M, or ASTM 4, 5, 6, or 7 class weights).
Confirmation letters will not be issued until it has been determined that the class has sufficient students AND the proposed participant has successfully completed the course pre-work.
Complete a laboratory internal audit) assessing your laboratory compliance to ISO/IEC 17025:2017, NISTIR 6969, and NISTIR 5672 for each of the following topics related to advanced mass, use of weighing designs, and precision mass calibrations. Provide tables/data as requested in this list.
- Provide a high-level overview of the laboratory goals upon completion of this course;
- Personnel, Staff Training (6.2): Describe the staff training, education/experience related to mass calibrations;
- Facility, Accommodations (6.3): Describe the environmental controls in the laboratory that will enable compliance to Echelon I limits as described in NISTIR 5672, SOP 5 and SOP 28, also describe the area where standards (internal and incoming) will be stored;
- Equipment (6.4): Provide an inventory of the balances that will be used to perform advanced weighing designs and include the current standard deviation of the measurement process that designate the procedures currently in use (See NISTIR 5672);
- Standards, Calibration Program, and Traceability (6.5, Annex A): Provide a current and proposed traceability hierarchy/inventory of standards and their calibration dates, calibration sources, and describe if changes are in process (See also GMP 11 and GMP 13 from NISTIR 6969);
- Procedures (7.2): Describe the mass calibration and uncertainty calculation and reporting procedures in current use in the laboratory;
- Care and Handling of Standards and Items Submitted for Calibration (7.4): Describe the process by which standards are accepted for calibration as well as current practices for cleaning, stabilization, and equilibration;
- Uncertainty (7.6): Provide a summary of mass calibration uncertainties for the laboratory that includes a description of each component that is currently incorporated as well as an uncertainty budget table and current Scope of recognition or Accreditation (See SOP 29 from NISTIR 6969 as well);
- Measurement Assurance (7.7): Describe the current control charts and assessments that are in place in the laboratory for mass measurements and describe the proficiency tests that you have completed for precision mass calibrations (See NISTIR 6969, SOP 9 and SOP 30); and
- Calibration Certificates (7.8): If your laboratory has already been working at this level, assess the calibration certificates issued for calibrations done at this level against the criteria in section 7.8 of 17025:2017 (See also SOP 1, NISTIR 6969 for a checklist). If your laboratory is not working at the Echelon I or weighing design level, assess a mass calibration certificate at the highest level of mass calibrations that is on your Scope.
Pre-Work Deadline
The pre-work must be completed and submitted to Micheal Hicks (micheal.hicks [at] nist.gov (micheal[dot]hicks[at]nist[dot]gov)) by Thursday, April 29, 2025. You may send the audit files as Word, PDF and/or associated Excel files for review.
A mandatory pre-work and Action Plan review will be held on Thursday, May 8, 2025, via Adobe Connect Pro webinar.