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Load Cells Maximize Weighbridge Performance

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What is a weighbridge? By definition, a weighbridge, also known as a truck scale or weight scale, is a large, heavy-duty platform scale used to weigh vehicles and their cargo. They are typically found in industrial settings where large or commercial vehicles, cargo, and various materials must be weighed.

Weighbridges come in all shapes and sizes and measure the weight of various products. The heart and soul of a weighbridge is a sensor that provides the user with accurate weight data.

Traditional weighbridges often rely on mechanical components that can wear down over time, leading to slight inaccuracies. Interface load cells are incredibly precise and deliver highly accurate weight readings, even with constant use. This minimizes errors in measurements, ensuring reliable data for every weighbridge operation.

One of the most common weighbridge applications using load cells is measuring large trucks at weigh stops on highways and in transport centers. However, weighbridge load cells are used in weighing applications for railways, waste containers, supermarket scales, warehouses, test benches, heavy-duty equipment, and industrial scales.

Typical Weighbridge Use Cases

  • Compliance with weight limits: Many countries regulate transportation, including a vehicle’s maximum weight. For example, weighbridges ensure that trucks are not overloaded, which can damage roads and bridges and be dangerous.
  • Shipping costs: Weighbridges are used to weigh shipments to calculate accurate shipping costs.
  • Track inventory: Warehouses, shipyards, manufacturers, and distribution companies can use weighbridges to track their inventory by weighing incoming and outgoing goods.
  • Waste disposal: Weighbridges can weigh waste materials during landfill disposal by automating equipment to manage waste.

Our load cells support many weighbridge applications because we supply highly accurate and reliable force sensor technologies commonly used in weighing applications across all industries. We understand weighing sensors must be highly accurate and reliable to ensure precise data. Check out our weighing solutions guide to help select the right measurement device for your application.

Interface weighing solutions that make an excellent fit for weighbridge applications include:

Top Five Benefits of Precision Load Cells For Weighbridges

#1—Precision load cells offer superior accuracy to traditional mechanical weighbridge systems. This minimizes errors in weight measurements, ensuring reliable data for transactions, compliance checks, and inventory management.

#2—Reliability is vital in these applications. Interface load cells deliver consistent weight readings even with repeated use. This allows for dependable performance, which is crucial for tasks like batching or monitoring materials.

#3—Unlike mechanical systems with moving parts, precision load cells are reliable instruments that increase lifespan and reduce maintenance costs and downtime for weighbridge operations.

#4—Precision load cells offer a broader range of weight capacities. This allows a single weighbridge with these load cells to accommodate various vehicle sizes and weights, offering greater flexibility.

#5- Interface offers a range of highly durable load cells designed to withstand harsh industrial environments, ensuring long-lasting performance and reliable weight measurements.

Truck Weighbridge Solution

A customer owned a truck company and needed to record the weight of loads being carried by their trucks. They wanted a wireless weighing bridge to transmit, log, and display the results in real time. Interface suggested installing multiple WTS 1200 LowProfile™ Load Cells under a weighing bridge. When the truck drives over it, the load cells transmit the force results wirelessly to the WTS-BS-4 Industrial Base Station connected to the customer’s PC with the provided Log100 software. The WTS-LD2 Wireless Large LED Display also displayed the weight inside for the driver to see in real-time. Using this solution, the customer successfully measured, logged, and graphed the different loads their trucks carried wirelessly onto the weighbridge.

Interface has also seen applications, including the use of weighcheck load cells in machinery for bag filling, bottle filling, high-speed check weighers, multi-head packing machines, silo and tank weighing systems, and conveyor scales.

Interface is the perfect force solutions partner for weighbridge applications across industries. To learn more about these solutions for weighbridges and other weighing applications, please visit our Weighing Solutions Overview and Applications.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Aquafarming Fish Weighing

Inventory Weighing

Mining Tank Weighing

Timber Weighing and Harvesting

Load Cells for Smarter and More Efficient Weighing

Medical Bag Weighing

 

Interface Weighing Solutions and Complete Systems

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Sensors are commonly used for weighing applications throughout the product life cycle, from R&D to distribution. Sensors are used for weighing individual parts or components, inside equipment and machines for measuring weight during assembly and production, weighing ingredients, and weighing final products during distribution and transportation. Interface provides a range of weighing solutions for these use cases, including individual measurement devices, instrumentation, and complete systems to manage large and small projects.

Interface supplies highly accurate and reliable load cells and sensor technologies for weighing and scale solutions, including complete weighing systems. Weighing and scales must be dependable and always provide correct data. That is why Interface’s precision sensors and instrumentation are preferred for weighing systems. To outline our breadth of this product line including complete systems, we recently introduced a new Weighing Solutions Overview.

Interface Weighing Solution Products

Interface offers weighing solutions that are standard products and engineered to order for weighing use cases. This includes our 2023 Weighing Review Award nominated A4200 Weighcheck Load Cells.

A4200 and A4600 WeighCheck™ Load CellsInterface A4600 WeighCheck™ Load Cells in stainless steel and A4200 WeighCheck Load Cells, which is zinc plated, are both high accuracy force measurement weighing solutions. Manufactured and designed by Interface engineers, these exclusive Interface products are specifically designed for tank weighing, where it is necessary to accommodate expansion and contraction of the tank. Interface has expanded with new model options that include signal conditioning features, including customized IO-Link Digital and 3-Wire options. The newly introduced customized A4200 and A4600 3-Wire Amplified Load Cells provide an internally amplified low profile load cell with a voltage or mA signal. This option eliminates the need for an external signal conditioner and comes scaled to the load cell and ready to use.

Standard A4600 and A4200 WeighCheck Load Cell features include:

  • Capacity ranges from 2.5K to 50K lbf (11.1 to 222 kN)
  • High output – 4 mV/V
  • Self-centering in all directions
  • High safe side load – to 400%
  • Standardized output – ±0.1%
  • Zinc plated (A4200) or stainless steel (A4600)
  • Factory assembled for easy field installation
  • Static, dynamic and in-motion capabilities
  • Low height – 4.0 in (101.6 mm) for 2.5K, 5K, 10K (11.1, 22.2, 44.5 kN); 5.0 in (127 mm) for 25K, 50K lbf (111, 222 kN)

Interface offers fully engineered to order and custom options to our WeighCheck load cell models that include our new A4200 and A4600 IO-Link Digital Load Cells with an industry stand M12 connector. IO-Link, a communication protocol used in industrial automation applications to connect sensors and actuators to control systems has multiple benefits. These include increased flexibility, enhanced diagnostics, simplified wiring, improved efficiency, and lower costs.

Engineering Insights to Build Complete Weighing Systems

Interface’s weighing solutions include single and multiple sensor systems, depending on the exact application requirements. Important for this type of test and measurement, we have wired and wireless sensors, data acquisition systems, weight indicators, displays, and transmitters, software solutions and accessories. A review of many of these products and applications are detailed in our popular recorded Weighing Your Options Webinar.

When helping to build customized full weighing system solutions, there is additional configuration and engineering work that goes into delivering the system. One of the most important aspects of building a system is load cell trimming. Excitation trimming the old way adds resistance to the excitation. The system load cell with the lowest output receives the full excitation voltage, while the other system load cells receive proportionately smaller excitation voltages. This creates matched outputs for all load cells in the system.

Signal trimming is the most common and popular type of trimming because it is the easiest to use. It involves adding a relatively high parallel resistance between the signal of each load cell, which creates a leakage path that diverts some of the available load cell signal away from the indicator. More load cell signal will be available to the indicator as parallel resistance increases.

Weighing Applications

 

Crude Oil Weighing

Hospital Bed Weighing

Inventive Agriculture Monitoring and Weighing Solutions

IoT Waste Management Container Weighing App Note

Snack Weighing and Packaging Machine

Ice Machine Weighing

Veterinary Weighing Scales

Weighing Your Options Webinar Recap

Interface Weighing Solutions Overview

Weighing Solutions Brochure

 

Interface Manufacturing and Production Solutions

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Force measurement is integral to advanced manufacturing systems, especially when it comes to how this technology is used in production lines. Force sensors are utilized in both testing and monitoring of a wide variety of machines to ensure accuracy and repeatability throughout the production line. These sensors are also used by production line engineers in the design and development of systems used to ensure accuracy in measurements of force, weight, compression, and torque as products and components move throughout the line, including distribution.

Watch how Interface provided an industrial automation solution for small pallets used in the distribution of manufactured products. In the video, we highlight a request for a pallet weighing solution to use in their warehouse to monitor their products and goods 24/7. They need to use sensor technologies to verify if any products are missing based on the weight, and able to determine pricing for their goods based on the weight.

Interface works with a large range of manufacturers and equipment makers to improve quality and productivity by supplying high-performance measurement solutions. From using miniature load cells to apply the exact force needed to press a brand identity onto fragile consumable, to using multi-axis sensors for verifying performance data when making intricately machined parts, Interface products are commonplace in manufacturing and production.

In fact, Interface offers manufacturing and production standard off-the-shelf, engineered to order and complete OEM solutions including load cells, instrumentation and weighing devices. Our products provide the quality and durability necessary within industrial environments. In addition, we can customize the majority of our products to fit unique and evolving needs as sensor technologies like robotics and advanced manufacturing devices are integrated into production lines.

Load cells are frequently used in monitoring equipment. Interface can custom design force sensors to be installed directly into product for monitoring certain forces in real-time, including for use in industrial automation robotics. This is particularly popular in manufacturing because you can monitor equipment to understand when it may be out of alignment and needs to come down for repair, rather than risking a disruption in production. This is particularly important in automated production lines because it gives engineers and extra set of eyes on machines and improves efficiency overall by reducing downtime.

One of the unique use cases for load cells used for monitoring is in weighing materials held on pillow blocks bearings. Pillow block bearings, or similarly constructed bearing, are used to carry rolled materials or conveyor belt. Interface’s new PBLC1 Pillow Block Load Bearing Load Cell can be placed underneath the bearing to measure the weight of whatever material is being held up. These types of bearing are often found in machines with similar type of bearing are used on conveyor belts moving products down a production line.

Manufacturing Feed Roller System

A customer has a feed roller system and needs to monitor the forces of both ends of the rollers, in order to maintain a constant straight feed. They would also prefer a wireless system. Interface came to the rescue with our Pillow Block Load Cells and WTS Wireless Telemetry Systems. Interface suggests installing two PBLC Pillow Block Load Cells at both ends of the bottom roller to measure the forces being applied. The forces are measured when connected to WTS-AM-1E Wireless Strain Bridge Transmitter Module. The data is then transmitted wirelessly to the WTS-BS-6 Wireless Telemetry Dongle Base Station and the WTS-BS-1-HA Wireless Handheld Display for multiple transmitters, where data can be displayed, graphed, and logged on the customer’s computer.

Production Line Conveyor Belt Adhesion Test

A customer wants to test the adhesion strength in between the many layers and textiles of a conveyor belt. They want to conduct a separation test from the rubber of the conveyor belt from the other layers. They would also like a wireless solution. Interface’s SMA Miniature S-Type Load Cell is installed in the customer’s tensile test load frame, where it measures the forces applied as the test is conducted and the layers are pulled and separated. When connected to the WTS-AM-1F Wireless Strain Bridge Transmitter Module, the data is wirelessly transmitted to WTS-BS-5 Wireless Analog Output Receiver Module with nV output. The WTS-BS-5 can then connect to the 9330 Battery Powered High Speed Data Logging Indicator to display, graph, and log the data with supplied BlueDAQ software.

Industrial Automation Robotic Arm for Production

A manufacturer of a robot arm needs to measure force and torque when the arm picks up and places objects. The manufacturer needs a wireless system to accomplish this in order to log the measurement results. Interface supplied Model 6A40A 6-Axis Load Cell with Model BX8-HD44 Data Acquisition/Amplifier.

Interface force sensors can be used in a number of ways within the manufacturing industry across a variety of applications for the test and monitoring of machines and production lines.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Force Measurement Solutions for Advanced Manufacturing Robotics

Robotics and Automation are Changing Modern Manufacturing at Interface

Vision Sensor Technology Increases Production Reliability

Industrial Automation Brochure

Weighing Solutions Brochure

Smart Pallet Solution

Interface Solutions for Safety and Regulation Testing and Monitoring