High precision industrial scales can be quite particular. They shouldn’t be handled roughly, or the load sensor could get damaged. They should be kept on a level surface, or else the readings will be inaccurate. They should not be on a stable surface without vibration or movement, or else the readings could fluctuate. And they should be kept in an environment where the temperature is stable, preferably at room temperature.
But industrial environments are often not quite so accommodating. Digital scales may have packages dropped on them, so the load sensors must be designed and built with especially tough materials. Sophisticated averaging algorithms attempt to correct for a moving or vibrating support surface.
The most difficult condition is when there is a low temperature. Some situations where this can occur are at frozen food production facilities. Other similar applications can be at certain medical laboratories or pharmaceutical factories. There are also a variety of special manufacturing requirements which would fall into this category.
Some techniques that are used by scale manufacturers, such as Arlyn Scales, is to compensate the output signal levels of the electronic scale load sensors. This can consist of a set of simple temperature sensitive resistors that have been selected to act in the opposing direction as the load cell electronics. A more sophisticated method is to use a sensor to measure the temperature of the load cell. The temperature data is sent to the scale controller. When the weight data from the load cell is calculated, the controller will apply the appropriate digital correction based on the temperature data.
Weighing at Low Temperatures
High precision industrial scales can be quite particular. They shouldn’t be handled roughly, or the load sensor could get damaged. They should be kept on a level surface, or else the readings will be inaccurate. They should not be on a stable surface without vibration or movement, or else the readings could fluctuate. And they should be kept in an environment where the temperature is stable, preferably at room temperature.
But industrial environments are often not quite so accommodating. Digital scales may have packages dropped on them, so the load sensors must be designed and built with especially tough materials. Sophisticated averaging algorithms attempt to correct for a moving or vibrating support surface.
The most difficult condition is when there is a low temperature. Some situations where this can occur are at frozen food production facilities. Other similar applications can be at certain medical laboratories or pharmaceutical factories. There are also a variety of special manufacturing requirements which would fall into this category.
Some techniques that are used by scale manufacturers, such as Arlyn Scales, is to compensate the output signal levels of the electronic scale load sensors. This can consist of a set of simple temperature sensitive resistors that have been selected to act in the opposing direction as the load cell electronics. A more sophisticated method is to use a sensor to measure the temperature of the load cell. The temperature data is sent to the scale controller. When the weight data from the load cell is calculated, the controller will apply the appropriate digital correction based on the temperature data.