Maximum weighing capacity (source code)

= Maximum weighing capacity
{title2=$\mathrm{Max}$}

The \b[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>.<Non-automatic weighing instruments, Part 1>[OIML R76-1:2006(E), T.3.1.1, printed p13]{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 satisfy
$$
m_{\rm gross}=m_{\rm net}+m_{\rm tare}\leq 5\,\mathrm{kg}.
$$
A 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.<Non-automatic weighing instruments, Part 1>[T.3.1.7, printed p14]{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.