Understanding Industrial Scales: Why Accuracy is Crucial for Your Business

Industrial Scales

Commercial scales, or sometimes referred to as industrial scales, can play an important role in ensuring accurate and efficient weighing of various items. Designed for convenient weighing, commercial weighing scales are constructed to endure some of the harshest environments. As such, they have become a common site across several industries, including manufacturing, shipping, logistics, retail, food production, healthcare, and many more. You can browse A&D’s industrial scales here, or scroll down to learn more about how industrial scales can benefit your business.

Why Do I Need Industrial Scales?

If you run a business, there’s a good chance that you may need commercial scales. Found in retail stores, small businesses, grocery stores, gyms, hospitals, industrial facilities, and even households, commercial scales play a vital role in accurately measuring items up to their maximum capacity. Larger pallet-type industrial weighing scales are especially beneficial for measuring heavy and large volumes of goods.

Commercial Scale Components

It’s important to understand the distinctions and core components of industrial weighing scales:

Load Cells: Load cells serve as the central component, converting force (weight) into an electrical signal for measurement and display. They come in various types, such as strain gauge, hydraulic, and piezoelectric, each with its unique applications and characteristics.
Digital Indicators: Digital indicators play an important role in interpreting the electrical signal from the load cell and presenting the weight on a screen. They often feature user-friendly interfaces, allowing for easy calibration, unit conversion, and data recording functionalities.
The Weighing Platform: The weighing platform is the foundation upon which items are positioned for measurement. Platforms can vary in size and shape to accommodate a wide range of items, from small laboratory samples to large industrial goods. They are also constructed from a wide range of steel or plastics.
Accessories: A&D Weighing offers a wide selection of accessories for all your weighing and measurement needs. This range includes AC adaptors, quick USB adaptors for seamless data capture, printers, noise analysers, portable weighing data loggers, and more.

The Benefits of Using Industrial Scales For Your Business

Industrial scales can offer a range of advantages for your business, including:

High Precision Measurements: Precision in measurements is crucial for many business sectors, where even a minor error can lead to significant financial losses and affect customer trust. Industrial Scale offers meticulously engineered scales to provide high-precision measurements, ensuring fair transactions and customer satisfaction.
Versatility Across Applications: Commercial scales are versatile tools suitable for various applications, handling everything from heavy machinery to delicate compounds. Options such as waterproof scales for seafood processing or high-capacity scales for mining, can enhance operational efficiency and accommodate diverse industry requirements.
Workflow & Increased Productivity: Commercial scales streamline business operations by providing quick and accurate measurements, reducing waiting times, and increasing throughput. This efficiency boosts productivity, cuts down on labour costs, and allows businesses to allocate resources more strategically.
Durability & Cost Effectiveness: Built to endure both heavy use and harsh environments, commercial scales are shining examples of durability. While their initial cost can sometimes be higher, their robust construction means that repairs and replacements may be infrequent, which will provide you with considerable cost savings over time.
Enhanced Safety Features: Modern industrial scales are equipped with a variety of safety features designed to prevent accidents and minimises accidental damage to the scale. Such features help mitigate risks and contribute to a safer working environment, which is essential not only for meeting safety standards but also for ensuring the welfare of your employees.
Compliances With Regulatory Standards: Many industries are tightly regulated to ensure fairness and safety in trade practices. Commercial weighing scales with NMI Trade Approved certification, ensures that your business adheres to these stringent standards, avoiding potential legal issues and fines. Accurate measurements are vital for maintaining fair trade practices, and reinforcing your business’ reputation as a reliable and trustworthy brand in the market.

The Commercial Weighing Scales Trending on the Current Market

The following varieties of commercial scales are currently the most popular on the market.

Bench Scales: Tailored to suit spaces where there is limited benchtop area, bench scales offer a compact footprint with a capacity range usually between 1-60kg.
Counting Scales: are specialised weighing devices designed to efficiently and accurately count items instead of just measuring their weight. Counting scales are particularly useful when you need to quickly determine the quantity of identical items without the tedious task of manual counting.
Platform Scale: When items are too bulky to be lifted onto a bench, platform scales offer an optimal heavy-duty solution for warehouses and large stores, enabling ergonomic and accurate weighing of bulk goods.
Balance Scales: Balances areprecision instruments used to measure the mass or weight of an object. Whether you work in research or are involved in other laboratory work, a high-precision weighing scales is usually a necessity.
Compact Scale: Compact balance scales are very popular due to their affordability as well as their versatility, as they are convenient and suitable for diverse applications in almost numerous industries. Their lightweight construction and battery-operated functionality enhance portability, allowing for easy transportation and use in various environments. These scales find utility across multiple industries and are particularly handy for travel or mobility needs.
Portable Scales: Portable scales are any scales that are easily transportable. This includes compact scales, bench scales, and pocket scales. They usually operate on two or more batteries.

How Accurate are Weighing Scales?

Weighing scales can vary in accuracy due to several factors. Environmental conditions such as temperature fluctuations, humidity, and air pressure can affect scale readings, as can mechanical wear and tear, calibration issues, and human user error.

Strategies To Maintain Accuracy of Commercial Scales

There are several ways you can maintain the accuracy of your scales. These include:

Regular Calibration: Regular calibration is important for preserving the accuracy of industrial scales. Conducting calibrations at specified intervals guarantees consistent and dependable measurements. It’s crucial to entrust these calibrations to trained professionals who utilise certified weights.
Proper Installation: Correct installation is important. Placing scales on stable, level surfaces, away from potential sources of interference like vibrations and drafts, is essential. Proper installation mitigates uneven weight distribution and ensures accurate readings.
Environmental Control: Environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and air pressure can impact scale accuracy. To minimise these effects, industrial scales should be situated in controlled environments.
Upgrading When Necessary: Newer industrial scales can incorporate advanced technology that helps maintain accuracy. Upgrading to newer models outfitted with precision sensors, digital indicators, and sophisticated algorithms can substantially enhance accuracy and deliver more dependable measurements.
Use of Suitable Scale: Whether you’re looking at bench scales, floor scales, or crane scales, always remember that differentapplications and tasks require different specific scale types. As such, selecting the appropriate industrial scale for particular applications is critical.
Regular Monitoring: Regular maintenance plays a pivotal role in identifying and resolving issues before they compromise accuracy. Components such as load cells, sensors, and indicators necessitate routine inspection and cleaning. Prompt repair or replacement of any worn or damaged parts is imperative to maintain accuracy and prolong the scale’s lifespan.

Factors to Consider Before Buying a Commercial Weighing Scale

There are a few key considerations that you should keep in mind before you purchase new weighing scales:

Capacity: While it’s often assumed a higher-capacity scale is better, this isn’t always the case. In fact, broadly speaking, a higher capacity can often reduce your accuracy. So if precision is crucial in your work, it’s important to select a scale with a capacity that meets — but does not exceed — your needs. To choose the right capacity, determine the weight of your heaviest load and select the lowest capacity scale that slightly exceeds that weight.
Accuracy: In addition to determining your optimal capacity, it’s also important to establish the weighing resolution required. This is particularly pertinent in industries like medical research and chemical formulation, where the accuracy of measurements is paramount for ensuring product quality and safety.
Application: Consider the specific tasks and environments in which the scales will be employed, ie. whether it’s for inventory management in a warehouse or for portion control in a commercial kitchen etc. Understanding the unique demands of each application allows you to tailor your selection criteria accordingly, ensuring that the chosen equipment aligns seamlessly with your workflow and delivers optimal performance.
Material: You should always consider what materials the scales are made from and how those materials align with the specific demands of your work environment. Consider factors such as durability, ease of cleaning, and resistance to corrosion or chemical exposure.
Size: You should always select a scale with a platform wide enough to accommodate the size of the products you’ll be weighing. You should also assess whether a high or low platform is more suitable for the products in question.
Government Regulations: Ensure that your scales meet the necessary certifications and comply with legal trade requirements to avoid potential fines, legal issues, or reputational damage. Staying compliant fosters trust and confidence among customers and regulatory authorities.
Cost: When investing in scales, you will need to strike a balance between meeting business needs and staying within budget constraints. Consider the total cost of ownership, including maintenance, calibration, and potential downtime, to assess the long-term value of the investment. While cost-efficient options may seem appealing initially, you should generally prioritise quality and reliability to avoid costly repairs or replacements down the line.

A&D’s Range of Scales

HC-i Series Counting Scales

These counting scales offer exceptional count accuracy, easy operation, 99 ID memories, a rechargeable battery, a detachable display, and Audible Weighing Assist (AWA). They are available in capacities of 3, 6, 15, and 30kg.The high contrast liquid crystal display ensures easy reading, and it has a built-in comparator for check weighing pre-packaged goods. This scale features 6,000/7,500 displayed divisions for high accuracy weighing and a high internal resolution of 600,000/750,000 counts for precise parts counting. The scale can be powered by an AC mains adaptor or a rechargeable battery pack, and it comes with a one-year warranty.

SD-200 Fully Portable Trolley Scale

These scales truly exemplify our commitment to delivering practical and innovative solutions for diverse weighing needs. These heavy duty scales are battery operated and feature a clearly visible indicator. Fully portable and designed to eliminate unnecessary lifting, the SD-200 Trolley Scales are ideal for various environments such as warehouses, stores, offices, homes, and factories. With a capacity of 200kg x 0.5kg, this robust trolley scale enables easy transport of heavy products, making them perfect for situations requiring better ergonomics and ease of manoeuvrability.

SJ-WP Compact Traffic Lights Bench Scale

With its unique build, this submersible SJ-WP scale features IP67-rated flour, dust, and waterproof construction, which enables thorough cleaning, and includes an externally mounted load cell for fast stabilisation within a maximum of 0.5 seconds. The auto-tare function allows for take-away check weighing, while the touch-sensitive capacitive keys prevent damage from sharp objects.

Bright, multi-colored 5-step LED comparator lamps ensure easy readability. With 5000 hours of continuous use, the batteries can last over two years in a typical working week, eliminating the need for constant recharging or mains adaptors.

FS-Ki Series Wet Area IP65 Checkweighing Scales

The FS-Ki Wet Area Checkweighing Scale excels in product preparation and packaging environments. Its robust stainless steel construction enables this scale to be easily cleaned, and is fully approved for trade by N.M.I. Australia.