Many industries require precise measurements, and paint mixing is no exception. While mixing red and blue might give you purple, it won’t translate to the exact shade a customer is looking for if the measurements are off. To ensure customers are happy and you can create the correct shades, you need a reliable and accurate digital paint mixing scale.

Paints, Pigments, and Dyes: Mixing and Weighing Solutions

Paint formulation is tricky business, but it’s also an art form. While much of a paint mixture may be of one particular color (generally white), the colored pigments must be added in precisely. Each shade must be carefully formulated and controlled as the slightest difference from what was expected will leave customers disappointed and cost the manufacturer money, not to mention tarnish their reputation for consistency. At Arlyn Scales, our mixing and weighing solutions depend on a high precision, high-resolution paint scale to measure the components for a final pigment color.

How to Weigh for Complete Balance and Account for Human Error

Arlyn’s scales are versatile enough to be used in any paint-mixing niche. The company offers an array of standard mixing scales, which simply weigh each paint ingredient as it is poured into the mixing cup and onto the scale.

In some cases, Technicians must carefully pour out the amount of material needed while watching the scale. The scale will prompt users to either add the next ingredient or ask if users would like to recalculate the mix in the event of an accidental over pour. Painting chemicals also require mixing reducers, thinners, and other additives into the paint. Their accurate measurement is crucial when providing highly concentrated colorants and pigments to base paint.

Automated Weight Value Triggers for Easy Paint Mixing

Arlyn can also provide you with a setpoint controller for your SAW scale to further automate your precision dye mixing process. Our optional setpoint controller enables the user to enter up to eight weight values. Once one of the weight values has been read by the scale indicator, the controller can send an electronic notification to the scale user, or a signal can be sent via a solid state relay to turn on/off equipment, such as a dispensing pump. With paint mixing, you could set up a drum on the scale container that holds the required amount of base paint. You could then enter a target weight value equaling the first pigment weight plus the base weight. You can then repeat the process for each additional pigment required.

Digital Paint Mixer Scales

When a technician is not required, digital scales allow automated paint mixing. Using paint manufacturer formulations, Arlyn’s paint weighing scales are used to add the different materials to make the paint the desired color and viscosity. Arlyn can customize any scale to fit your needs.

For custom solutions, it will determine how much pigment, reducer, or hardener is needed by weight input. When mixing dye and solvents or other additives, it will prompt the user to provide content amounts accurately which is essential for good paint and application to bodywork.

To ensure this accuracy, we recommend our Ultra Precision line of scales, which utilize SAW technology, give more than ten times regular accuracy. The cost remains extremely competitive while the ability to absorb constant industrial usage is not compromised.

SAW: A Triple Threat of Precision, Quality-build, and Rugged Ability

The solid-state Surface Acoustic Wave or SAW scale includes ultra precision scales and large ultra precision scales. The SAW scales incorporate load cells which measure displacement, rather than stress or strain, which greatly reduces the range of error. With accuracy at 0.005%, this scale offers a sensitivity of up to 20 times that of regular scales. These scales also have a much greater resolution than a strain gauge scale.

For example, a 100 lb. strain gauge scale has a resolution of 0.02 lb., but a 100 lb. SAW scale has a resolution of 0.001. If you were trying to add 0.2 lbs. of red pigment to a base paint, the strain gauge scale can only provide 10% accuracy, whereas the SAW scale can give you the accuracy of half of 1% for the same pigment. The highest capacity of an Ultra Precision SAW scale is 1000 pounds with a .01 pound resolution and offers a maximum resolution of .0001 at the ten-pound capacity.

The die-cast aluminum frame and stainless steel weighing pan are rugged and durable, which is ideal for the paint-mixing environment. When working with the highest necessary accuracy formulation, batching, and mixing in industries such as transportation, geotechnical and environmental, these scales will exceed your expectations. Some of the outstanding features on these digital scales are

– Surface Acoustic Wave Sensor: Their overload specification of 200 percent of the full capacity of the scale means it is one of the most durable scales available.

– Climate-resistant: Due to the excellent temperature specifications of the scale, it will always offer accurate readings since exact ratios must be carefully formulated in order to successfully match dye colors.

Cylinder Scales for Measuring Liquid Levels

Paint mixing involves a lot of liquids, which can be a bit more complicated to weigh. When you’re working with solid materials, you simply place the object itself on the scale’s platform to weigh it. When it comes to liquids, you need to weigh the liquid level that’s in a cylinder. This is where our cylinder scales come in. The ArlynGuard C is an intrinsically safe cylinder scale, meaning it’s appropriate for use in hazardous and explosive environments. These paint scales are easy to use and have no moving parts. The low profile stainless steel platform makes it easy to load and unload cylinders, and the rugged aluminum housing can handle large loads. These liquid measurement scales are ideal for use in rugged manufacturing environments, and you’ll get accurate readings.

Intrinsically Safe Platform Scales

If you prefer platform scales, we also have an intrinsically safe version that can be used with harsh paint, dye, and pigment mixing materials. The ArlynGuard P can handle loads from 500 lb to 1,000lb and is safe to use in many hazardous classes, divisions and groups. These dye mixing scales are available with sensitivities as high as 0.1lb, which is important when working with precise measurements. The load cells are made from heat treated stainless steel alloy, and the platforms are constructed from welded aluminum. Full stainless steel options are also available, and these scales are made in many sizes.

Upgrade With The Arlyn UpScale

The Arlyn Upscale is a high-definition IPS color touchscreen weight indicator for industrial scales. This indicator makes it easy to log and share the data from your scale. Available exclusively from Aryln, the Upscale Touch Screen Indicator features a widescreen display with great resolution and 8GB of storage. It also comes with 1GB of DDr3 RAM so it can multitask across processes. With the Arlyn UpScale, you can record data in two great ways: via a USB Data Logger and Google Sheets. You can attach a USB thumb drive to the scale and download thousands of records (including weight, time, group, and item information) and then download data into an Excel spreadsheet. You can also configure Google Sheets to accept the scale’s data so you can track and log in real time. Both these options make logging convenient and portable, which is important when working with dyes, paints, and pigments.

Browse our Selection of Scales for your Paint, Pigment, and Dye Needs

Regardless of the scale solution you choose, each of Arlyn’s digital and electronic scales provides their operators with user-friendly features so that anyone can operate an Arlyn scale. If you’d like to find out more about the SAW scale for Paint Mixing Scales, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Arlyn Scales. Our team of seasoned experts is always on hand to address whatever scale needs you might have. Browse our products above and read more about the paint formulation process using our industrial scales, here.

Contact Us for Weighing Solutions Tailored to Your Needs

Arlyn Scales has been a leader in the weighing technology industry for decades, and our team of experienced engineers is constantly coming up with new, innovative solutions. If none of our standard precision scales meet the needs of your business, please contact us. We are happy to work with you to figure out a custom solution.