Recycling programs have become widespread in many industries for several different reasons. Economically, it is extremely viable for companies to sell any unused materials, including steel, iron, glass, plastic, rubber, wood, paper, and precious metals, to recycling companies. Environmentally, any products that are reused rather than placed in landfills help protect valuable land and nature. Legally, it is becoming more and more common for states and municipalities to pass legislation required industrial entities to create these recycling programs.

When recycled products are brought to recycling plants, these plants must first sort out the different products, and then must weigh them in order to determine how much to pay the donator. Digital platform scales are ideal for weighing this recycled material. These digital scales usually have a capacity of about 1000 pounds, which is a reasonable capacity for the expected loads in a recycling plant. They can range in sizes. Arlyn Scales platform scales are offered in a 20″x27″ size for smaller packages of recycled material, a 36″x36″ size for larger boxes, and a 48″x48″ size for large loads. In addition, these scales are only 1 7/8″ high which make for easy loading and unloading.

Recycling plants may have a corrosive environment that can damage the electrical platform scales. Corrosion resistant scales are beneficial. Therefore, it is often necessary to make the scale components out of materials that won’t corrode. High quality scale manufacturers, like Arlyn Scales, make their load cells out of a special stainless steel alloy. While this alloy is more difficult to machine than steel or aluminum, which is found in lower-quality scales, it is much more resistant to corrosive materials. In addition, stainless steel load cells are more resistant to bending that occurs when they are exposed to heavy shock loads. In recycling plants, where forklifts are often used to place heavy loads on the industrial scale, this extra strength is extremely important.

This data recording can be done by humans. However, this opens up the possibility of human error-the data may be recorded incorrectly. Sometimes, digital scales may be connected to a computer using a standard communication protocol such as RS-232. But if the computer is not in the vicinity of the scale, this introduces the issue of running long lengths of wire which is both expensive and time-consuming.

Scale manufacturers that offer the newest technologies, like Arlyn Scales, now make electronic scales with optional built-in Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports. Standard USB thumb drives can be plugged into these ports, and weight data from the industrial scale can be recorded on these memory devices. The digital scale can be programmed to automatically load the data on its screen onto the thumb drive at pre-set intervals such as every hour, every minute, or even several times a second. Or, an operator can press a button on the control panel of the scale to record the data at that point.

Once data has been stored onto the USB thumb drive, the device can be removed from the USB port of the electronic scale and the data can be imported into a database or spreadsheet program on any computer that has a USB port. This method of copying data from industrial scale to computer is very cheap, with 4 GB thumb drives costing as little as $10.

A veterinary scale should include a number of features to make it easier for both the animal and the veterinarian. It is important that the height of scale platform be as low as possible. This makes it easier for the animal to step onto and off of the platform without any stress. Arlyn Scales animal scale has a low profile of only 1 7/8”. In addition, a rubber mat is provided for the platform. This increases the comfort for the animal. The mat is also completely washable, for he convenience of he staff.

The digital scale indicator includes special software to properly handle an animal that does not stay still. The veterinary scale will acquire many weight readings over he course of a few seconds. It then processes all of the readings, averaging many of them and discarding those readings which are cause by movement. The correct weight is then locked on the digital readout. The animal may then be removed from the scale. The weight can be read at any convenient time.

The animal scale should be able to handle animal waste. While most of these scale are provide with aluminum or plated steel load sensors, models from Arlyn Scales only use special alloys of stainless steel. This prevents corrosion, but has the added benefit of being more rugged than the other materials. This prevents damage to the scale if it is dropped or handled roughly. As the veterinary scale may sometimes be used by non trained personnel, this becomes an important feature.

Specialty weighing and sorting devices have been designed by Arlyn Scales for this industry. The pig sorter consists of an inner cage with entry doors and exit doors, along with some sorting gates. The inner cage is suspended from load cells and hung from an outer cage. In normal operation, the entry door starts in the open position. An electric eye detects when an animal enters the cage. The entry door closes, and the load cells send the weight signal to a scale indicator. When a stable reading has been recorded, the sorting gates will swing into position to send the animal to the desired feed area. If the animal is gaining weight slowly, it will be directed to feed that will provide it with additional nutrition. If the animal has gained weight faster than the others, it will eat from lower calorie feed.

The pig sorter collects data from each animal as it travels through. This data can be collected internally with the scale indicator, or sent to a USB memory stick. Not only is each individual weight recorded, but it is sorted by group. This data is used to calculate the average weight gain of all of the animals in the batch. More advanced options allow this data to be transmitted from the pig sorter to the Internet. Those who need to read this data, when given the proper authorization, are able to access it from any Internet connected computer.