Using Industrial Scales in your Warehouse

June 10th, 2009

Using an industrial scale in a warehouse environment can reap many rewards, most significantly a drop in man hour and labour time.  Whilst you may sometimes agree that industrial scales can be large, cumbersome and take up valuable warehouse space you can, these days, buy weighing scales that are light enough to be stored away when not in use and yet strong enough to withstand every day usage of 2 tonne pallets or more.

Beam scales are a good option to consider when space is limited.  These are often made from two pieces of durable U-section steel and are light enough to be picked up and stored away when not needed.  A cable will often connect the two beams together follewed by a second cable to take the signal from the beams to the weighing indicator.  The indicators for such weighing equipment would more than likely be mains powered meaning you would need to use the beam scale somewhere near a mains socket, however battery powered indicators would give you the freedom of being able to use the scales anywhere and offer you the best in portability.  Beam scales would also offer you the freedom of being able to weigh pretty much any size pallet or box by simply adjusting the distance between the beams.  This is especially handy if you have many different size items to weigh.

For a more permanant fixture you may consider a larger industrial platform scale.  These are commonly found to be around 1.2 metres square but can be produced to any size required.    When pit-mounted, these scales would be able to offer you the advantage of simply driving your pallet onto the platform with a pallet truck or fork truck for complete ease of use.

For the ultimate amount of portability in a warehouse or industrial application, you could consider a pallet truck scale.  These handy pieces of equipment look and act like a pallet truck but with the added benefit of a weighing scale being built into the chassis, therefore allowing you to take the scales to the weight rather than the weight to the scales, something which could save you hundreds of man hours.

We hope this article is of some use to you, but as always please feel free to call us or visit www.scalesonline.co.uk for further information if and when you need it.

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Counting Scales used to save time and effort

May 14th, 2009

When counting parts or pieces by hand you will often find that it can be a tiresome and inaccurate job by anyones standards.  Imagine then having the luxury available to you to simply tell a scale what each individual piece weighs and then it doing the counting for you.  This luxury need not be expensive with a vast range of recently launched counting scales onto the market.

Counting scales can come in all different shapes and sizes, but typically are large enough to fit on a desk and have three displays on the front.  Each individual display tells you something different, but each add up to provide you with the same time and cost saving information.  You will normally have one display telling you the overall weight, one telling you the piece weight and one telling you the quantity counted.

Most counting scales will give you the facility to tell the scale how much each individual item weighs as well as the often preferred method of adding a sample quantity to the platform.  The latter simply requires you to put, for instance, ten items on the scale followed by a key press to tell the scale that there are ten items present.  The scale will then do the maths necessary to work out how much each individual item weighs and will proceed to count accurately for you.  As with any mathematics involved, the higher the sample quantity the more accurate the piece weight will be and therefore the more accurate your counting will be.

In some instances the counting scale will have a second scale input.  This allows you to attach, as an example, an industrial weigh beam scale.  With the second scale attached you can switch between scale 1 or scale 2 on the display and have parts counting abilities on either scale.  This can be especially useful when some items you are counting need finer accuracy and lower capacity which you would use the desk mounted scale for, or switch to the larger beam scale for counting heavier items on pallets.

We hope this article is of some use to you, but as always please feel free to call us or visit www.scalesonline.co.uk for further information if and when you need it.

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Bench Scales and their place in the Office

May 12th, 2009

Weighing items for shipping and receiving requires both an accurate scale and one robust enough for everyday usage.  Parcel shipping scales often come in a small form factor that can be used on a desk or bench.  Capacities can vary, but more often than not a 30Kg capacity would be more than adequate for most people as this is the limit of what one person can safely lift onto a bench platform and is often the limit of most carriers on a per item basis.

An important factor when considering bench scales is the size of the platform.  Is the platform big enough for what you need to weigh?  Is it small enough so it doesnt obstruct your other work duties?  Will you be able to see the display when you are weighing your items?  More modern day scales come with the ability to detach the facia from the weighing base and therefore allow you to see the display even when weighing over sized items.  Also, will the scale be suitable in a plastic housing, or would a stainless steel platform be better?

Finally, you may need to consider whether scale needs to be battery operated or mains powered.  A mains powered scale is often the most reliable as you never need to worry about batteries running out and finding out you can not use your scale until the batteries are replaced, however for convenience sake a battery powered scale can also have its benefits such as no trailing wires, or using up already limited plug sockets.

These are just a few points to consider when buying a scale for your office/workshop environment.  If you would like any further advise or assistance when purchasing a scale, please feel free to call us or visit www.scalesonline.co.uk.

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New range of medical scales

April 21st, 2009

Tanita bc-418ma Medical ScaleWe now have a whole new department added to the ever growing scalesonline catalogue!

Through a new partnership with one of our existing suppliers, we are now able to offer a complete range of medical scales specifically designed for use in hospitals, surgeries, health centres or anywhere else that patient weighing is essential.

Through this continued growth we aim to assist even more customers with our consistently high levels of customer satisfaction.

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The National Medical Weighing Project

April 21st, 2009

Patients at hospitals throughout the UK could be at risk because staff are using faulty weighing equipment. In one case, hospital staff used defective bathroom scales to weigh a four-year-old cancer patient in order to calculate her radiation dosage.

Now trading standards officers are to check scales at hospitals after initial visits found many were inaccurate.

They also found equipment was missing and staff did not have access to the right scales for specific tasks.

In the case of the four-year-old cancer patient the error was spotted in time.

But there are fears that others are receiving wrong dosages due to faulty equipment.

The National Medical Weighing Project will run for one year, starting in April.

Staff training

Officers will check that all weighing equipment is accurate, legal and fit for purpose, focusing particularly on cancer and children’s’ departments.

They will also ensure that staff are properly trained.

Councillor Geoffrey Theobald, chairman of the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS), said: “Going into hospital for treatment can be a worrying time for many people, and it is important that patients have full confidence that they are being given the right dose of medicine or other treatments.

“The new National Medical Weighing Project will give patients the peace of mind that they are receiving the correct level of medication and will help hospitals iron out any problems involving the accuracy of their weighing equipment.”

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said it was “extremely concerned”.

Dr Simon Lenton, the college’s vice president for health services, said: “It is vital that both height and weight are correctly calculated when determining appropriate drug dosages.

“Children metabolise drugs differently from adults and therefore it is crucial that accurate measuring equipment is being used.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “It is for each local NHS trust to determine the equipment they require to provide safe services to their patients.

“Patient safety and appropriate clinical care is of the utmost importance. We would expect clinicians to use the right equipment and not compromise patient safety.”

For more information, please visit this articles web page

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How to choose the right scale for you

April 21st, 2009

Buying a scale can be a complicated task as there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of different type scales out on the market today. With a little bit of help and assistance it neednt be too difficult though.

The first thing you need to do is decide what items or products your scale is going to be weighing. This involves knowing roughly what your heaviest item is going to be, combined with how small the divisions you need the scale to go up in. You will also need to know how large the item is that you are going to be weighing.

With this information to hand you can then begin looking at the various different types of scale out there.

One common misconception is that you can have a single scale for weighing absolutely anything. This, quite simply, is incorrect as we could never recommend using a pallet scale to weigh letters, or vice versa.

Typically a scale weighs to 3000 divisions. For instance a 3000 gram scale would go up in 1 gram increments, a 6000 gram scale would weigh in 2 gram increments, a 3000Kg scale would weigh in 1Kg increments. This certainly applies to most scales but isnt a rule for all. As an example, the Ultra75 weighs up to 34Kgs but in as small an increment as 5 grams. This is because it has been designed to cover as many applications as possible giving it a broader user base and therefore making it less expensive.

Scales that are to be used in shops where you will be selling by weight need to be trade approved. An example of this is when a sweet shop owner sells 100 grams of sweets to his customers. Because you are declaring that there is a certain amount of product on that scale then you need to prove that it is accurate to a certain standard. These would normally be sold as Trade Approved, Weights & Measures Approved or Class III Approved. These all mean the same thing, and that is that they conform to a standard which says that they are accurate enough to be selling on. Medical scales, generally used in surgeries or hospitals, also need to be Class III approved.

We hope this article was of some use to you and assists you in being able to choose the right scale for you. However we are always available for more information or advice. Please feel free to visit http://www.scalesonline.co.uk for the latest information and offerings.

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How much will your pallet truck scale really cost you?

April 21st, 2009

Pallet Truck Scale

Since manufacturers first hit on the idea of combining a pallet truck with a weighing scale, the industry has grown and grown and increased competition has meant that prices have come down across the whole range of trucks that weigh. But what do you get for your money? Chinese imports are commonplace, but are they a good investment? A side-by-side comparison will likely show that the build quality of the import is substantially lower than their UK-built counterparts. At first glance, buyers may think they are getting a Mettler Toledo display on the import, but a closer look will reveal that the display is just a poor imitation and if it should fail or start giving problems, no service or support is available in the UK – basically, its the end of the road for the whole truck. And with the typically shorter working lives these imports have, what looked like a bargain at the time of purchase could turn out to be an expensive per-day or per-weigh piece of equipment in your workplace.

At ScalesOnline, we have been building pallet truck scales for over 20 years. Our trucks are built to a high quality standard so that you can rely on them to give years and years of service. A powder-coated finish and rubber steer-wheels are standard. We build our trucks here in the UK and keep on-the-shelf stocks of all parts, so if a problem or mishap should occur, we can get your truck up and running again at a fraction of the cost of a new one. A quality truck built in the UK (like those available from ScalesOnline) can still be going strong in your workplace in 10 years time – that is a cost of just 11p per day! Especially in todays economy, thats the sort of value for money everyone needs!

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