5 Tips for Buying an Industrial Scale
Industrial scales are heavily utilized in shipping, trucking, loading dock, logistical, retail, supply chain, food, inventory, laboratory, and warehouse applications. They’re calibrated by either factory or the original manufacturer.
Calibration is necessary because its accuracy will diminish with routine usage. The scales will present false readings. This is why you should regularly calibrate your industrial weighing scales to prevent the scale’s accuracy from degrading.
Different Types of Industrial Scales
There are different types of industrial scales that each offer different weighing ranges and even different levels of accuracy. When you are selecting a scale, you should be considering how much the object(s) you’ll be measuring will weigh. Always make sure to choose a scale with a capacity slightly higher than what your needs are.
Additionally, different scales Precision Scales Inc. come equipped with various different functions, such as full range tare, part-counting, and zero capabilities. Double-check all the requirements of your specific application, and consider what additional functionalities would benefit your process over time.
What to Consider When Buying an Industrial Scale
When going through the process of evaluating all the industrial scales available on the market, you’ll want to consider a few things:
Anticipate the Weight of the Lightest Item
It’s important that you think about the weight of the lightest item you plan on measuring with your scale. This will help you figure out what your potential industrial scale’s minimum capacity should be.
Anticipate the Weight of the Heaviest Item
Make sure you consider the weight of the heaviest item you plan on measuring with your scale. This will help you figure out what your potential industrial scale’s maximum capacity should be. Something to keep in mind is that usually, the higher the maximum load that a scale can accommodate, the less accurate your scale will be when it comes to weighing capability. On the flip side, there are indeed high-capacity, high-resolution industrial scales, but these guys tend to be very expensive— so you’ll have to be willing to sacrifice a big portion of the bank.
Anticipate the Dimensions of Your Range of Items
It is absolutely imperative that you anticipate your items’ full range of possible dimensions when considering your industrial scale needs. This will ensure that you buy a scale with an appropriately-sized weighing pan or platform. The pan or platform size should be chosen based on the maximum weighing capability and measuring accuracy of the scale. This is to ensure that the platform is constructed around the ability to place your item on the surface’s center.
If a load is placed out-of-center, leverage can occur. Although most industrial scale’s load cells can make up for leverage effects to a certain angle, samples with dimensions larger than the surface must be more carefully positioned to make sure that the center of gravity stays in the middle of the pan.
Sometimes, an industrial scale features an under-the-floor weighing function for objects that are unable to be leveraged onto the scale because of its shape or size. When a scale does have this function, it usually features a hook at the bottom for suspending loads.
How Accurate Do You Need Your Industrial Scale To Be?
Answering this question will help you determine what resolution you’ll need out of your industrial scale. If the industrial scale lacks an indication of its measuring accuracy, the basic formula to calculate its accuracy is the measurement deviation = the resolution value x 3 or 4.
Depending on what the application is, it may be handy to have a calibration weight set to verify the accuracy of the industrial scale and to possibly adjust the scale itself accordingly. Like any other scale, an industrial scale likely drifts over time— ultimately increasing the margin of error in its measuring capability.
Understand the purpose of your scale
The purpose of weighing your items helps to determine whether or not you’ll need advanced functionality beyond mere weighing when buying your industrial scale.
