Use Less Floor Space for Drum Scales

In a factory facility, floor space is always a valuable commodity. Many industrial factories use machinery to produce their products. These may be plastic injection molding machines, or milling machines and lathes, or punch machines, presses and metal brakes, or any of a very wide variety of other types of devices. Although they may all be very different types of equipment, they all use quite a bit of floor space. Industrial scales can be an integral part of many different industrial processes. Where precise formulation is required, small lab balances or bench scales may be employed. If pallet loads of materials are being handled, large floor scales or platform scales may be used. In those situations where parts are being packaged or dispensed, parts counting scales may play an important role. One of the most common uses of electronic scales is for weighing drums to mix and formulate chemicals, detergents or other liquids. Liquefied gasses are another standard material stored in drums. This type of digital scale is known as a drum scale. They are manufactured by a number of different companies, including Arlyn Scales. The most standard size is a drum scale that is designed for 55 gallon drums. A wide variety of other sizes are also available. The platform size of a drum scale should easily accommodate the standard drum, which has a diameter of 24. Consideration should also be paid to the method that will be used to move the drums. If they will simply be rolled by hand, the scale platform can conform to an industry standard size of 20 x 27. If a drum cart or other similar wheeled device will be used, the platform must be large enough to easily accommodate the wheel base of the cart. Some other standard sizes are 30 x 30 and 36 x 36. The most popular size drum scale offered by Arlyn Scales is the larger one. Not only must there be enough floor space allotted to the scale itself, but there must also be space for a ramp on which to roll the drum carts. Of course, the ramp must be as wide as the scale. But the length of the ramp is highly dependent on the height from the ground of the scale platform. A scale with a high profile must use a longer ramp, in order to provide a mild slope on the ramp. Naturally, a scale with a lower profile may achieve the same mild slope with a much shorter ramp. For higher scales, the ramp may be as large, or larger than the drum scale itself. For very low profile scales, the ramp may be much shorter. Shorter ramps may be fabricated with less material, causing them to be less expensive. They will also take significantly less floor space than the ramps for the taller profile scales. Manufacturers may use a number of techniques to achieve a lower profile industrial scale. One important method is to machine the frame of the scale so that the weighing devices, known as load cells, may be incorporated into the body of the scale itself. This is as opposed to fastening the load cells underneath the scale frame, causing the entire body of the scale to be that much higher. Another method is to use stainless steel load cells instead of the more commonly used aluminum cells. As the material itself is stronger, the stainless load cells can achieve a lower profile. This translates directly to providing a lower profile for the entire scale. The drum scale will realize another important benefit from using stainless steel load cells. Because this material has a higher modulus of elasticity than other types of load cell material, it will be more resistant to the types of shock load that these types of industrial scales can be subjected to. A drum cart that is carrying a fully loaded drum will be very heavy. The cart itself can be somewhat unwieldy. If it accidentally smacks into the side of the scale, there will be very high side forces on the load cell. This can cause the load cell material to be stressed to the point where it undergoes plastic deformation. In this case, there will be permanent damage to the load cell, and the scale will be unable to obtain accurate readings.