Students of the second and third year of physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences in Kosovska Mitrovica visited the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals on May 31, 2013.

About Metrology system of the Republic of Serbia and the existence of national standards as the first condition for the arranged metrology structure, students learned through the presentation.

Education visits continued visiting the laboratories of the Directorate which are the key elements of technical quality infrastructure and the support to the state economy and international trade.

Students had the opportunity to be in addition to theoretical knowledge of metrology acquainted with realized, most accurate calibration methods for dissemination of values of SI units to end users and to establish links with international standards.

In the “Official Gazette of RS”, No. 50/13 of June 7, 2013, is published Decree on the amount and manner of payment of compensation for performing tasks related to testing and hallmarking of precious metals articles, which will come into force on June 15, 2013.

This Decree establishes amount of fees paid for conducting testing and hallmarking of precious metals articles, conducting chemical analyzes of precious metals, alloys and articles, testing of equipment used for examination of precious metals articles, the eligibility for decision on sign of manufacturer, importer or representative, the eligibility for decision on testing and hallmarking of precious metals articles in the premises of manufacturer or importer, as well as for performing other tasks related to testing and hallmarking carried out by Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals in accordance with the law governing the control of precious metals articles, and the manner of payment of such fees.

In the “Official Gazette of RS”, No. 50/13 of June 7, 2013, is published Decree amending the decree on amount and manner of payment of compensation for performing verification of measuring instruments, metrological expertise, type examination of measuring instruments, testing of pre-packaged products and other tasks in the field of metrology, which will come into force on June 15, 2013.

Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals (DMDM) and Accreditation Body of Serbia (ATS) within the JUSK International Convention on Quality - JUSK ICQ 2013 - (http://www.jusk.org/) organized the fifth Special Conference "National Accreditation System - present situation and future development, and fourth Special Conference "National Metrology system - current situation and future development, which was held on June 5, 2013, at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade.

In the period from May 16-17, 2013, in Prague was held meeting of the Subcommittee on sound in air (SC-A) and EURAMET Technical Committee for Acoustics, Ultrasound and Vibration (EURAMET TC-AUV).

In the part of the meeting regarding the contributions of National Metrology Institutes, Dr. Maja Aleksic, metrologist for acoustics from DMDM, presented the development of the new method for measuring geometric parameters of national standards for sound pressure in the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals. For this study was used an optical measuring microscope from laboratory for dimensional metrology, and the result was the reduction of uncertainty of the primary reciprocal method of calibration of laboratory standard microphones on pressure. Presentation by DMDM were accepted with great interest, and welcomed paper and the establishment of links between different fields of metrology (the dimensional metrology, and acoustics), which is an effort in future development projects.

Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals (DMDM) and the Accreditation Body of Serbia (ATS) within JUSK International Convention on Quality - JUSK ICQ 2013 - (http://www.jusk.org/) organize the Fifth Special Conference "National Accreditation System - State and Future Development" and the Fourth Special Conference "National Metrology System - Current Situation and Future Development", which will be held on Wednesday, June 5, 2013, at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade.

In the „Official Gazette of RS”, No. 43/13 of May 17, 2013, is published Regulation on the pre-packaged products, which will come into force on May 25, 2013, and the provisions of Articles 11 to 13 this Regulation will be applicable after the expiry of two years from the entry into force of this Regulation.

This regulation closely prescribes the procedure for testing of pre-packaged products to check compliance with metrological requirements, requirements for equipment used in supervision on the amount of pre-packaged products, metrological requirements that must meet amounts of pre-packaged products, marking the amounts and tolerances of actual amounts to the labeled nominal amounts, size and shape of the mark of conformity of amounts of pre-packaged products, way of placing, as well as way of documenting compliance of amounts of pre-packaged products with the metrological requirements, as well as the metrological requirements for measuring bottles, allowed volume tolerances, as well as inscriptions and markings on bottles as measuring containers.

Visit of students from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FON), from Belgrade University, to the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals, are traditionally performed on the eve of the Metrology Day.

Third-year students of the study program Quality Management visited the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals on May 17, 2013.

By presentation of the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals, as a National Metrology Institution of the Republic of Serbia, the students were introduced to its contribution to meeting the requirements for accession to membership of the World Trade Organization and the European Union, through enabled unity of measurements in the Republic of Serbia, the provision of accurate and comparable measurements, use of measuring instruments which comply with the requirements of internationally established, the use of SI units and by providing traceability of measurement results to national and international standards.
Expert visit continued visiting the laboratories of the Directorate in which realize, keep up, maintain and improve national standards of SI units and the existence of which is the first requirement for developed metrology structure. Thus, the students had the opportunity besides theoretical knowledge in metrology acquainted with the realized, most accurate calibration methods for dissemination of values of SI units to end users that establish links with international standards.

On May 15, 2013, in Gebze (Turkey), Mrs. Vida Živković, M.Sc., Director of Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals (DMDM), and Dr. Fatih Ustuner, Director of National Metrology Institute of Turkey (TUBITAK UME) signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The aim of the MoU is to provide by joint activities, inter alia, the promotion of cooperation of DMDM and TUBITAK UME through the exchange of information and experience in the field of metrology, organizing mutual visits of experts, participation in seminars, workshops, joint projects and other.

Under the MoU signing ceremony was presented by representatives of TUBITAK UME the work of that institution showing, among other things, the history of metrology in Turkey, the National Metrology System of Turkey, TUBITAK UME organization and its role in quality infrastructure of Turkey as well as the mission, vision and strategy of TUBITAK UME.
Also, representatives of TUBITAK UME organized for representatives of DMDM tour to laboratories during which discussions were held on preparation of the Action Plan for the implementation of the MoU.

Fourth year students of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Kragujevac, visited Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals on May 13, 2013.

On role of Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals, as National Metrology Institution of the Republic of Serbia and key aspects of metrology, as well as links with the regional and international metrology institutions and participation of the Directorate in appropriate Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRA), students learned through the presentation.

Professional visit continued visiting laboratories of Directorate in which national standards of SI units are realized, kept up, maintained and improved and the existence of which is the first requirement for developed metrology structure.

Students had the opportunity to learn about research to improve the SI unit, which performs Directorate, through the realization of new and improvement of existing national standards and ensuring their traceability to the international level.

The workshop „Proficiency testing in chemistry” was held in the period of May 7-9, 2013, in Belgrade, Serbia, in Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals (DMDM), with technical support from EURAMET Focus Group, IPA Project and PTB, Germany. The workshop was organized by the Institute of Metrology of Bosnia and Herzegovina (IMBIH) and DMDM from Serbia. The trainers were Mr. Hugo Ent from VSL, Ms. Jelena Bebić from DMDM and Ms. Katarina Hafner from IMBIH.
The topics of the workshop were addressing the issues such as:

• making use of the information given in Proficiency Testing reports to document laboratory’s quality and suggest improvements
• organization (plan, preparation, report) a PT for participants
• preparation of a procedure for PT participation and for PT organization for their quality system of the laboratory
• statistical data treatment

There were 19 participants coming from Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Turkey, Poland and Serbia, mostly from NMIs. All participants received Certificates of participation in Technical Training Course “Proficiency Testing in Chemistry”.

In the period April 23-25, 2013, two representatives of the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals participated in training "Density measurement training" in the field of measurement of density, which was organized in the National Metrology Institute in Austria - BEV. Organizer of training was German National Metrology Institute, PTB, within the PTB project "Promotion of regional cooperation of the countries in South East Europe in the field of quality infrastructure."

The speakers were Mr. Christian Buchner, Head of the laboratory for mass, volume and density determination, and metrologists Mr. Dietmar Steindl, and Mr. Pohl Fratzl from the BEV Institute.

On April 29, 2013, Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals (DMDM) and the Croatian Metrology Institute (HMI) have signed Agreement on cooperation in the field of metrology. Agreement on cooperation in the field of metrology signed Mrs. Vida Zivković, M.Sc., Director of DMDM, and Prof. Dr. Sc. Davor Zvizdić, Director of HMI.

The aim of the Agreement on cooperation in the field of metrology is to ensure by joint activities, among other things, improving cooperation of DMDM and HMI through the exchange of information and experience in the field of metrology, organizing mutual visits of experts, participation in seminars, workshops, and more.

On April 26, 2013, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for Standardization of Serbia jointly promoted the publication „Building Trust - Tool Kit for Conformity Assessment.”

Publication „Building Trust - Tool Kit for Conformity Assessment” issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the Institute for Standardization of Serbia published the publication in Serbian with the support of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) under the program for private sector development in Serbia - ACCESS.

This publication is intended primarily for small and medium enterprises that are export-oriented, as well as regulatory bodies, conformity assessment bodies and consumer associations.

Among other speakers at promotion of the publication „Building Trust - Tool Kit for Conformity Assessment” Mrs. Vida Zivković, M.Sc., Director of Directorate for Measures and Precious Metals, presented the role of the Directorate in conformity assessment of measuring instruments with prescribed requirements.

On April 19, 2013 in the Ministry of Finance and Economy was held a training on implementation of Regulation on non-automatic weighing instruments (”Official Gazette of RS”, No. 17/13) , which transposed Directive 2009/23/EC relating to non-automatic weighing instruments.

Training was organized by representatives of the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals and the Ministry of Finance and Economy, to domestic manufacturers of non-automatic weighing instruments, importers and authorized distributors of foreign manufacturers, as well as the bodies authorized to perform verification of non-automatic weighing instruments.

In the „Official Gazette of RS”, No. 35/13 of April 17, 2013, is published Regulation on the form and content of the official identification card of the person authorized to supervise precious metals articles, which will come into force on April 25, 2013, and will take effect on May 17, 2013.

This Regulation closely prescribes the form and content of the official identification card of the person authorized to supervise precious metals articles, as well as manner of evidencing issued identity cards.

In the period of April 10-11, 2013, the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals, organized 14th National TrainMiC (Training in Metrology in Chemistry) Course for 15 representatives from Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals. Course was realized by National TrainMiC Team members licensed by the EC.

In period from March 18 – 21, 2013, two representatives from Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals was attended in Training cours - Calibration of liquid flow meters and uncertainty evaluation in calibration, organized by VSL - Dutch Metrology Institute in Dordrecht. Training was held by metrologists Mr. Erik Smith, Mr. Rens van den Brink and by Mr. Ros Rath responsible for the National Standards for the traceability of liquid flow meters in the Netherlands.

The following areas were included in the Training: Gravimetrical, volumetric, master meter, pipe prover, tower calibration methods; Calibration models (calculation of measurement error etc.); Introduction to uncertainty analysis of the calibration model; Viscosity, density, temperature and pressure effects during calibration; Specific requirements for the calibration of different flow meter types like turbine, pd, mass, ultrasonic, EMF, Delta P, and others; Interpretation of BIPM, OIML, API and ISO documents concerning flow measurement.

In the House of Guards in Topcider on March 22, 2013, the ceremony marked the 40 years of Technical Test Center. The meeting was attended by representatives of Ministry of Defense and General Headquarter of SA, defense industry companies, academic institutions and other organizations.

On the work of Technical Test Center spoke the Director, Col. Prof. Dr. Slobodan Ilic. He recalled the basic mission of TOC to test and evaluate the quality of all armaments and military equipment produced in the country or abroad, which are introduced into the arms of the Serbian Army, for its modernization. Celebration was attended by representatives of the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals.

In Brussels on March 21, 2013, was held EURAMET meeting of delegates from ministries of member states to be included in a future European metrology program for innovation and research (EMPIR) and representatives of the National Metrology Institutes (NMI) of these countries. Host of meeting was Belgian Ministry of Economy, MSP, employment and energy.

Key topics of the meeting were related to the content and duration of the EMPIR projects, phases of the projects, the financing of the projects during its implementation and the specification of national support to EMPIR projects. Speakers were representatives from EURAMET and responsible from DG RTH of the European Commission. The meeting was attended by representatives of 23 countries which will participate in this program. Delegation of Serbia, which includes for the first time as a member of the European metrology development projects, were Mrs. Jelena Popovic, Assistant Minister of Finance and Economy and Mrs. Vida Zivkovic, Director of Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals. Assistant Minister stressed that the competent Ministry provides a clear overall support to the involvement of Serbia in the EMPIR project. She stressed that this is especially important for our economy and raise its competitiveness in the market in areas such as energy, health, safety, environment, etc.