The true hero of the water treatment process is the water treatment scale. When chemicals are added to water, they are not just added randomly. They must be added in precise amounts. The people who are performing the process need to know how much chemical material they are working with. One way that they can accomplish this is by keeping the chemical tanks on platform scales.

Municipal drinking water undergoes purification to remove algae, bacteria, fungi, viruses, some minerals, as well as man-made pollutants like fertilizers. These are some of the various processes that are used to achieve this end.

Screening: This is often the first step taken in purifying water that has been gathered from the surface of the Earth (as opposed to groundwater). Basically the water is passed through a screen filter that removes large debris like sticks, leaves, and trash.

Pre-conditioning: This is a process in which sodium carbonate is added to the water in order to precipitate the calcium carbonate in the water. Both the sodium carbonate and calcium carbonate can then be removed from the water by passing it through a filter. Special water treatment scales must be used to determine the amounts of sodium carbonate.

pH Adjustment: Making sure that water has the proper pH for its intended use is very important. Water that is intended for consumption needs to have a pH of approximately 7, which is neither acidic nor alkaline. If the water is too acidic or too alkaline for consumption, then chemicals are added until the water is brought to an acceptable pH level.

Flocculation: Everybody likes to drink clear water. Flocculation makes this possible. Flocculation is a process of clarifying, or clearing up, water. In this process chemicals are added to the water that cause muddying particles to precipitate, so that they can be filtered out.

Sedimentation: When water is being treated, it is often kept moving around at fairly high speeds so that it does not grow stagnant. When water goes through the sedimentation process, it is allowed to sit in a tank where it is moved at a relatively low speed. This allows for all of precipitation to settle to the bottle of the tank.

Filtration: Water is passed through filters in order to remove any particles that may not have yet settled to the bottom. There are many different forms of filtration, including slow sand filters, lava filters, and membrane filters. Ultimately they all serve the purpose of removing unwanted particles from water. At this point, water treatment scales will weigh the materials removed, to ensure that it is free of contaminants.

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.

It seems quite obvious that it is necessary to accurately measure all of the ingredients that must be mixed together to manufacture any formulation. What is not as obvious is the level of accuracy that must be attained. This, of course, is highly dependent on the material being formulated. Some types of mixtures are, by their nature, not very accurate and standard. This may be the case with agricultural products and animal feed mixtures. Others may need higher accuracy, but these levels may be easily achieved by a regular digital scale. Standard industrial scales can provide accuracy as good as 1/10 of 1%. Many chemicals, cleaning solutions, foods, and other mixtures easily fall within this range. This allows the typical bench scales to be used for smaller quantities, or floor scales, platform scales or drum scales to be used for larger batches.

But this level of accuracy is not suitable for certain special formulations. Pharmaceuticals may need greater accuracy. Another field which typically requires extremely high precision weighing is the formulation of paints. While there are no safety issues here, the mixture of pigments and other ingredients must be exceedingly precise in order to satisfy the color sensitivity of the human eye. Even very small discrepancies between two batches of paint can be instantly identified when they are displayed side by side. This type of specialty weighing calls for ultra precision scales with accuracy ranges that are ten to twenty times better than regular industrial scales.

Arlyn Scales offers a range of ultra high precision digital scales known as SAW scales, or Surface Acoustic Wave scales. There is a range of bench scales with capacities ranging from 10 lb up to 100 lb. A second range of high capacity SAW scales range in capacity from 200 lb up to 500 lb. These may be used as bench scales, or alternatively as platform scales or drum scales. Paint mixing becomes a much more accurate process with this type of weighing instrument.

For all of these reasons, there are many rules and regulations pertaining to the management of hazardous wastes. Some of these simply define what materials and items are deemed to be hazardous and which are not. Others outline the methods required for physically handling hazardous materials. There are specifications for the types of clear and accurate documentation that must be maintained.

Much of this documentation is associated with the amounts of these materials. Generally, they must be weighed at all steps in the process. Clearly, it is important to know how much material is generated. That can be determined by using a good quality industrial scale. Depending on the amounts and type of hazardous waste, this could be a bench scale with resolution as high as 0.001 lb. If it is a liquid that is stored in a pail, tank or drum, then a drum scale would be considered. Cylinders of hazardous liquids and gasses are weighed on cylinder scales. Platform scales, floor scales and pallet scales are used to weigh larger containers, totes and larger tanks. The weight can be recorded by hand onto the proper form. Alternatively, Arlyn Scales offers computer interfaces for most of their electronic scales. Weights can now be automatically stored in a database file, or can be printed on labels and other types of forms. It is even possible to use a USB memory stick to log the weight information from these digital scales, along with the time and date of the weighing action. This is particularly useful for maintaining high quality records.

All types of liquids, powders, pellets, slurries and other materials are handled in a wide variety of different types of cans, buckets, pails, drums, tanks and other types of containers. Traditionally, these have been filled by hand. Liquids are often dispensed by a manually operated pump or gravity fed valve. Other types of materials may also be gravity fed, or filled by use of a conveyor or other type of device. In all of these cases, the accuracy of filling is dependent on the operator. Of course, it is also labor intensive, as the operator is needed at all times to monitor the filling process.

Industrial scales are perfect for monitoring the filling process. A bench scale is used to keep track of the weight during the filling process for smaller sized cans, pails and other containers. A drum scale will serve this purpose for drums and small tanks, whereas a platform scale or floor scale can handle larger dewars and larger tanks. While this will solve the accuracy issue, it still requires the filling operator to read the scale and control the filling process.

Arlyn Scales offers a programmable set-point controller for their entire line of bench scales, drum scales, platform scales and floor scales. This allows the filling operator to program the desired weight into the industrial scale. Electrical signals from the scale will control the filling device, shutting it off when the target weight is reached. While this minimizes the efforts required of the fill operator, there may still be some inaccuracies caused by latent delay in turning off pumps, and valves, and the material remaining in fill pipes or tubes.  This controller permits a second target value to be programmed, which can set the filling into a much slower trickle feed. Generally, this will be sufficient to obtain the desired target weights.

The weight values that are shown on the indicator of an industrial scale are of critical importance to the scale operator. A bench scale may be weighing small packages. Or a parts counting scale may be determining the number of parts in a container. Larger drum scales and platform scales may be determining the amount of liquid in a tank or dewar or drum. And large floor scales will be weighing totes, pallets and large tanks. Besides reading the weight information, the operator of the electronic scale can also perform certain control functions, such as applying a tare weight, zeroing the weight on the scale, and choosing the units of measurement, such as pounds or kilos.

While it is required and expected that all digital scales provide all of this functionality locally, it is often desired to be able to also perform all of these functions from another location. In these cases, the most common requirement is to read weight data and control the scale from a local computer. Arlyn Scales provides optional Remote Indicator software that can be operated from any Windows based computer. The electronic scale must be connected to the computer. Typically, this connection would be an industrial standard RS-232 communication line. Alternatively, the USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection may be used.

Now, the computer operator can read weight data directly on the computer screen. They can also save this data in some other computer format, including spreadsheets and databases. Furthermore, the industrial scale can also be controlled directly from the computer. If the scale must be switched from the Net mode to the Gross mode, or the weight of a container must be subtracted, this may be accomplished from the computer keyboard.

For any wheelchair bound individual, the ease of use of items within their environment is critically important. Often, patients with limited mobility may need to have their weight monitored. This may be to insure that there is no significant loss in body weight due to improper nutritional intake. Alternatively, rapid weight gain may be a sign of build up of fluids caused by different types of medical issues. Wheelchair scales are used to accurately weigh these individuals.

Some important features of this type of platform scale include a large platform size, making it easy and safe to position the wheelchair on the scale. The height of the top of the wheelchair scale should be as low as possible. This makes it easier for the patient to wheel themselves up a ramp and onto the platform, or for a care giver to push the wheelchair up. Furthermore, a very low scale platform will only require a short ramp, avoiding the need for additional space required if a longer ramp must be used for a higher scale platform. Arlyn Scales achieves extremely low wheelchair scale height by incorporating high strength stainless steel load sensors. Most other scales use other types of metal for the load cells, which must be considerably larger for the same load capability. Furthermore, Arlyn Scales embeds the load sensors directly into the frame of the scale, further lowering the overall height.

The construction of the wheelchair scale itself, and the ramp, is of welded aluminum. This provides the dual benefit of a very rugged and durable platform that is also quite light in weight. Therefore, the scale can be easily moved throughout a facility or home. It may even be stored by placing it on its edge, leaning against a wall, thereby minimizing required floor space.

An industrial scale is a wonderful instrument for determining the weight of an item. Bench scales accurately weigh small items. Depending on the capacity of the digital scale, the readability of the weight can be as small as 0.0001 lb. Platform scales weigh larger packages and drums up to 1000 lb, whereas floor scales and pallet scales can accepts loads up to 20,000 lb. The accuracy of the electronic scale is dependent on the type of technology used. High quality industrial strain gage scales have an accuracy range of approximately 1/10 of 1%. If greater accuracy is required, alternate ultra precision scales, such as Arlyn Scales Surface Acoustic Wave technology can provide ten or even twenty times better accuracy.

But even an industrial scale with the best accuracy obtainable will not be of value within an industrial process if the user chooses not to use it because it is too difficult. Even if the electronic scale is being used, if the reading cannot be easily read, it is likely that inaccurate results will be obtained. Gross errors will occur if the front panel controls are confusing, potentially resulting in readings of kilograms where pounds are expected.

Good design practices can combine ease of use with excellent accuracy. For example, Arlyn Scales provides a combination of clearly marked front panel controls with a graphics, menu driven digital display. The user is guided through weighing operations by menu prompts which automatically scroll to the next operation. Furthermore, the very low profile of the industrial scales assist the scale operator in placing objects onto and off of the industrial scale platform. High quality stainless steel load cells protect the scale from damage caused by dropping items onto the scale platform, in addition to providing many years of trouble free use.

Parts counting scales are an ideal tool to use for counting parts that are identical in weight. Items such as bolts, screws, nuts, rivets, washers and other fasteners would fit this criteria. Similarly, electrical contacts, connectors, resistors, diodes, and integrated circuits would also be suitable. The scale operator places a small sample of parts on the digital scale platform, and through the keyboard, enters the number of parts in the sample. The industrial scale then calculates the weight of a single part. At this point, as parts are added onto the platform, the electronic scale can divide the total weight by the piece weight of the part to determine the total number of parts.

The accuracy of a parts counting scale is highly dependent on the accuracy of determining the piece weight during the sampling process. Arlyn Scales provides very high resolution for their digital scales in order to enhance this process. But for very small parts that must be counted in great quantity, the scale must have even higher sampling accuracy. Arlyn Scales Ultra Precision scales are ideal for this purpose. They provide twenty times the accuracy of standard parts counting scales.

For heavier parts, such as assemblies, castings, and enclosures, parts counting capability can be added to larger capacity scales. These include platform scales and floor scales. In some cases, as smaller bench scale is used for the sampling process.

Other industrial scale features can also be included in the parts counting scale. These can allow parts data to be communicated to a computer, or collected in a USB memory stick. It can also be sent directly to a local printer to provide adhesive labels.

Some industrial situations require significant additional protection to maintain the level of safety. By the nature of the product itself, there may be serious safety concerns. For example, certain chemical manufacturing processes result in flammable or explosive fumes. That is also the case with producing certain types of paints, including automotive paints. Propellants and solvents are also difficult to handle.

In these hazardous areas, all of the equipment used must be certified as safe. Factory Mutual is one of the organizations that test equipment for safety. This equipment may include mixers, lighting, and industrial scales, among many others. Intrinsically safe scales must be designed so that they cannot cause a problem, even if they are used incorrectly. Arlyn Scales provides explosion proof scales for a wide variety of environment. These hazardous area scales are powered by a single, rechargeable C sized battery.

Arlyn Scales offers intrinsically safe scales for a variety of applications. They include cylinder scales, drum scales, platform scales and floor scales. For smaller capacity weighing requirements, there are also explosion proof bench scales. Besides being suitable for use in hazardous areas, these industrial scales are rugged, accurate and easy to use. They are designed with stainless steel load sensors. These will provide the accuracy required for these digital scales, and they will also provide protection against overload and shock load, as often occur in industrial environments.