All You Need to Know about the Inner Workings of Industrial Scales Industrial scales come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are favoured by a number of different industries such as the agricultural industry, who use large floor scales to weigh livestock accurately, to the transportation and shipping industries, who use similar products to measure and weigh cargo. Whatever industry you fall into, it is important to know how weighing scales work so you can invest in a great quality product designed for industrial use like bench, platform, pallet or checkweigh scales. Strain Gauge Technology The majority of industrial scales are now digital and the way a digital scale works is a lot different than the mechanical balance and spring version used in yesteryear. Digital scales use a complicated process called strain gauge technology, this measures the weight placed on the scale using an analogy method and then converts it to show the result you see on the LCD display. Strain gauge technology takes the weight of the item placed on the scale and eventually distributes this to apply the force of the weight to one end of a load cell, which is a component in the scales that is electrically charged. As this weight is applied to one end, the other end of the cell bends to change the electrical resistance of the cell itself, which is then converted from an analog to a digital result. This digital result then gets processed by a smart microchip which displays the final measurement on the LCD display you see on the front of the scale. How Mechanical Scales Work Many of the larger industrial scales have no mechanical parts to ensure a longer lasting product that can take more weight as they are no sensitive parts to break. Mechanical scales tend to use the spring and balance method, which has been developed over centuries by theorists and scientists. These scales measure the weight against a standard reference weight by recording the distance the spring bends under the applied load. Mechanical scales then measure the rotation of the arm under the weight of the load and compare this to the torque the arm experiences under the reference weight to reveal the final weight. Mechanical hanging scales work a little differently by measuring the load against gravity to determine the final weight; this method is called Hooke’s Law. Essentially the final weight is determined using an equation that compares the spring displacement and the gravitational force felt when the load is applied. Discover more about weighing scales with One Weigh.
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