Maximum weighing capacity ($\mathrm{Max}$)

The maximum weighing capacity, conventionally $\mathrm{Max}$, specifies the upper capacity of a weighing scale; the OIML definition excludes additional capacity provided by an additive tare device.^[ref] A display reset does not by itself establish a new physical load capacity.

For a chosen model with a subtractive tare device, let $\mathrm{Max}=5\mathrm{kg}$ and suppose the combined gross mass on the load receptor must satisfyA container with tare mass $1.2\mathrm{kg}$ leaves at most $3.8\mathrm{kg}$ for net mass. Pressing the tare device can make the display read zero with that container present, but the container remains part of the supported mass. This calculation assumes the stated subtractive-tare model; it does not assign the same capacity budget to a scale with an additive tare device.

The maximum safe load describes a different boundary: the static load an instrument can carry without permanently changing its metrological qualities. It does not define the upper end of its specified weighing capacity.^[ref] For example, an instrument could have a declared $\mathrm{Max}$ of $5\mathrm{kg}$ and a separately declared maximum safe load of $7\mathrm{kg}$. Those hypothetical markings would not turn a $6\mathrm{kg}$ indication into a measurement within the declared $5\mathrm{kg}$ weighing capacity.