By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-11-22 13:56:51 | Word Count: 664
Commercial platform scales are incredibly strong, easy to use, high capacity and highly accurate scales, made specifically for utilization in industrial and manufacturing contexts. If you need to be able to meticulously weigh items in excess of 500lbs, then this is the type of scale you need.
Made to be above all durable, commercial platform scales must be rugged and robust. Large scales that use aluminum load sensors, or that have many detachable parts will not stand up to the habitual punishment of heavy animals, metal drums filled with liquids, or large agricultural loads. If you are thinking about acquiring a commercial quality platform scale for your farm or manufacturing business, then you need to carefully consider its design and its construction material. Make sure you get:
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1. A commercial platform scale made with stainless steel load sensors,
2. Welded construction, i.e., there are no moving parts that will break off or wear down, thus making the entire scale intermittently off-unbalanced,
3. That the platform itself does not exceed a height of 2 inches; otherwise you will have a difficult time loading and unloading unwieldy items such as heavy metal drums.
4. That the platform has helpful “ramps” at either end for ease of use when wheeling on ultra-heavy items or for coaching a line of livestock on to it.
5. Your commercial platform scale needs to be able to accommodate the capacity relevant to what kind of load you will be weighing on it. Commercial load capacities start at 500lbs and can support far beyond that, but heavier capacity models will have a correspondingly higher price.
6. That the display is housed in a robust enclosure, and has stainless steel load sensors. Any other type of material and your sensor will not wear well under prolonged, commercial use.
If you address each of these qualifications, you will be sure to get the most durable one for your application.
The next thing you want to address is accuracy and the management of information. Most commercial platform scales come with a sophisticated display case, but it is up to you how you want the rest of its features to help you. You can get one that merely reads the weight of your item, but you can also get one that will talk to your company’s computers via Ethernet, RS-2332 protocol, or RS-485 protocol. Any of these technologies will enable your display to measure weights, batch results, separate your stock into pertinent groups, send data to a spreadsheet (or other type of tracking file), or send results to a printer.
These software protocols will cost you extra to install, but once you have them, you will have seriously cut down on the amount of time required to weigh your stock, organize it, track it and manage the information relating to it—all tasks vital to your business enterprise. You can also get industry-specific software loaded into your display apparatus from some commercial platform scale manufacturers, making your life easier than you thought possible.
A commercial platform scale that is well suited for your manufacturing or industrial needs can only improve your overall profitability.
