NTEP, Legal for Trade, and Placed in Service

If you sell by weight in Texas, three different things have to be true: the model is NTEP-certified, the device is placed in service, and you are using it the way Handbook 44 allows. Buying a scale with “NTEP” in the title is only the first of those.

This page is a glossary, not a certificate. All Scales USA sells NTEP and non-NTEP equipment from Cypress, TX. Calibration and place-in-service are a separate conversation — see Houston scale calibration.

NTEP

National Type Evaluation Program. NCWM tests a type (make/model) against NIST Handbook 44 and issues a Certificate of Conformance (CC). The CC belongs to that design — capacity, division, class, and intended use.

NTEP does not mean:

• Your serial number was tested

• The scale on your floor is legal to sell by

• The seller is ISO 17025 accredited

• You can skip Texas place-in-service

If a listing says NTEP, ask for the CC number and match it to the exact model, capacity, and units.

Legal for trade

Legal for trade is about use, not the sticker. You are in legal-for-trade territory when a buyer pays (or is charged) based on the weight. Typical cases: selling meat or produce by the pound, billing freight by weight, batching a product you sell by mass.

A legal-for-trade installation in Texas generally needs:

1. An NTEP-certified model suitable for that use and class

2. Correct installation (level, pit, draft, seals)

3. Placed in service by a registered technician, with TDA paperwork

Using a shipping scale to check boxes in-house is not the same as using it to charge a customer. If you are not sure, say so when you order — we would rather sell you the right class than a cheap non-NTEP unit you cannot use.

Placed in service

The step that applies to your scale, at your address.

A registered scale service company inspects, tests, and seals the device and files with the state. In Texas that agency is the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA), Weights & Measures. Until that happens, an NTEP scale is a legal model sitting in commercial use without the state step.

We do not place truck scales or weighbridges in service. See calibration.

Class II vs Class III

Handbook 44 accuracy classes. The class is on the NTEP CC and on the scale’s data plate. You do not get to pick a nicer class in marketing copy.

Class II — Lab, pharmacy, precious metals, higher-precision commercial. Not a substitute for a floor scale.

Class III — General commercial: retail, shipping, floor, platform, most industrial legal-for-trade. Not “less legal” than Class II — it is the right class for those jobs.

Class IIIL / IIII — Other Handbook 44 categories (e.g. some vehicle/livestock or coarse industrial). Confirm on the CC; do not assume.

If a product page does not state class, treat NTEP as unverified until you see the CC.

d vs e

Two intervals, often printed on the same data plate.

• d — division (display). The smallest increment the indicator shows. A scale can display 0.01 lb (d = 0.01).

• e — verification interval. What Weights & Measures uses for tolerance. On many industrial scales e = d. On some precision / Class II instruments e is larger than d (the scale shows finer than it is verified).

Legal-for-trade decisions use e, not the finest digit on the screen. If a listing brags about readability and hides e, ask.

Texas TDA

Texas Department of Agriculture, Weights & Measures — the state program that licenses service companies, takes place-in-service reports, and inspects commercial devices.

TDA is not NTEP. NTEP is national type approval. TDA is Texas enforcement on devices in use. A Cypress or Houston shop selling by weight answers to TDA, not to a website badge.

For current registration and inspection rules, use TDA’s own Weights & Measures pages — we will not paraphrase their fee schedule or license classes here because those change.

What this site will not say

• We will not call a scale “legal for trade” only because the model has an NTEP CC.

• We will not claim ISO/IEC 17025 or A2LA on All Scales USA pages. We have not published those accreditations.

• We will not treat crane kits, lab balances, and floor scales as interchangeable NTEP products.

Related pages

• Service → Houston scale calibration

• Shop home → allscalesusa.com

One honest sister-site line, not a link farm: equipment also listed at MNM Scales and ek1200i.com (A&D). Same company, different catalogs.

Shop NTEP Legal for Trade scales, plus pharmacy balances, floor scales, and precision balances when the class matches the job.

Contact

All Scales USA · 21249 FM 529 Rd, Cypress, TX 77433 · (832) 766-5410 · pete@allscales.com Also: (281) 656-2666 · (832) 290-3120