Keeping track of small piece parts for your business can be a challenge. Pieces that are small but important elements of your final products, such as automobiles, toys, and computer products, need to always be counted for inventory control. Counting each piece by hand is extremely impractical.
To save time and reduce labor costs in regard to inventory, nothing is as helpful as an inventory scale that will count small parts for you. Counting by hand is tedious, inefficient, and exceptionally prone to human error. Therefore, it is important to make sure you have the right counting scale to help you quickly count many pieces of the same part by using the weight of each piece.
A digital counting scale can effectively determine the number of parts in a large batch of identical pieces by weighing the sample and dividing it by the number of individual parts. Yet not all counting scales are created equal. The most common cause of incorrect counting is an inaccurate sample-weighing process. A lot of manufacturers get this wrong. And if you’re using one of their scales, your inventory counts can be wrong too.
Parts Counting Scales From Arlyn Scales
Arlyn Scales can help you find an extremely precise counting scale. We have been a leader in the scale industry for the past thirty years. We attribute much of our success to our ability to manufacture high-quality scales at prices that most companies and individuals can afford. Our scales are the result of in-depth technological research and innovation.
Not only do we offer sophisticated electronics in our scales to create highly accurate measurements, but we also craft extremely durable scale frames and stainless steel platforms guaranteed to be abuse-resistant and provide the owner with scales that will last for years.
Our scales are manufactured in our factory in Long Island, New York. This arrangement allows our customers to obtain our scales factory-direct. By eliminating the middleman, our customers save a significant amount of money. The savings we get from the shipping factory directly goes right back into our company helping our customers obtain a cutting-edge scale that the competition can’t beat, no matter what the price may be.
The Series 820 Parts Counting Scale
Our Series 820 Parts Counting Scale is the perfect scale to keep track of your piece parts and maintain an accurate inventory. It’s able to use the weight of a single piece to quickly count the number of pieces that you place on the scale.
Parts Counting Function
The Parts Counting Scale has two basic ways to take the weight of all the piece parts placed upon the scale. In order to accurately count the number of piece parts placed on the scale platform, a sample weight must be taken. By doing this, the scale is able to use the total weight of all the pieces on the platform with the sample weight of one piece to create an accurate count of all the parts.
1. Quick Sample allows you to place 10, 25, 50, or 100 pieces of the part you are trying to count on the scale. A rule of thumb for parts counting scales is that the more pieces you place on the scale, the easier it is for the scale to get an accurate sample. Once you have entered the number of pieces in the scale indicator and then placed those pieces on the scale platform, the scale will create a sample and then shift into counting mode. At that point, you can put all the same piece parts you wish to have counted on the scale. The upside to this is that you are able to count your pieces quickly. The downside to using this feature is that the sample weight will not be entered into the scale’s memory. Should you wish to count this part again, you will have to go through the same quick sample process all over again as if you had never counted them before.
2. Sample Definition is where sample weights can be taken, named, stored, and activated by using the PARTS COUNTING menu on the scale. You will be able to:
- Add a New Sample – In the lower menu of the Parts Counting menu, you will navigate to NEW on the menu and press enter. The default sample name is a four-digit number determined by the number of samples already in the scale’s memory.
- Edit a Sample – This function allows you to select a sample weight and edit the description and the weight value. The weight values can be entered directly by the user or automatically by using the scale platform.
- Delete a Sample – This function enables you to delete any sample entries in the scale’s memory.
- Activate a Sample – This is the function you will use to count parts if that part has been weighed previously. Simply line up on the sample number and then click on the ACTV function in the lower menu. Press enter and the scale will then be ready to count the piec when they are placed upon the scale platform
The Accumulate Function
This function will allow you to keep a running count of all the piece you are weighing if you have the same type of parts in multiple containers or more pieces than can be counted in one weighing. Simply place the parts on the scale platform and press the ACCUM key. The scale will then continue to aggregate all the piece until you press and hold the ACCUM key, exiting the accumulate function.
Ultra Precision Scales with Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Technology
In addition to our standard strain gauge Parts Counting Scales, we also have our Ultra Precision Scales, should you require even more accuracy than strain gauge load cells. Strain gauge load cells tend to be more vulnerable to shock loading and overloading.
Let’s say you have a regular scale with a 100 lb. capacity and a resolution of 0.02 lb. You use a sample size of 10 pieces and the weight of an individual piece is 0.08071 lb.
Your sample weight should be 0.8071 lb. However, your scale will only read to its best resolution, which is 0.02 lb. So your scale would actually display 0.81 lb.
That’s an error of 2.5%, which is pretty significant. An error that high can actually affect the accuracy of your entire inventory for this part.
Our SAW load cells measure displacement which requires a considerably smaller sample. This allows the SAW load cell to be made of a thicker metal that makes it much more abuse-resistant. The SAW load cells enable the Ultra Precision scale to have accuracies up to 1:20000 and a maximum resolution of 0.0001. Plus, our Ultra Precision scales can guarantee precision accuracy at capacities previously unattainable. Our top standard capacity is 500 lbs. more than 10 times most other ultra-precision scales.
Custom Inventory Solutions for Industrial Applications
A counting scale may not be able to keep up if you house an inventory with hundreds and thousands of small parts. Our custom inventory solutions can create a system for tracking your inventory in real-time.
For example, we have had customers who stored all of their parts in shelved bins. We integrated multiple counting scales into this design and connected them to the company’s data management system using their WiFi network.
An automated alert system runs based on the weight of bins. When the stock of a particular part is running low, the scale sends an automatic email message to the purchasing manager who can order more parts. We called this the Vendor Managed Inventory System.
The Importance of Inventory Scales for Warehouse Management
The production floor may have to contact inventory control who may need to communicate with purchasing who would contact the part vendor to place an order. Of course, there are different systems in place with many manufacturers to avoid this disruption. They may rely on keeping excess inventory on hand. Or trying to keep strict control of items going into, and pulled from inventory. Or making an educated guess on the next requirement based on historical usage patterns. Mid-size and larger manufacturing organizations often outsource their inventory control, purchasing, and delivery to a distributor.
The distributor now has the responsibility of monitoring parts bins for low-stock conditions and then replenishing those parts. The distributor likely has a number of manufacturing sites for which they are responsible. This often leads to a situation where the distributor must dedicate staff to be at their clients’ sites or to travel regularly to that site for inventory control. Furthermore, it may be difficult for the distributor staff to properly determine how many items are remaining in a parts bin. Industrial scale systems may be used to address this problem.
The Vendor Managed Inventory System offered by Arlyn Scales provides a scale platform to be placed underneath each parts bin that requires monitoring. The electronic scale platform has the same footprint as the parts bin. A single digital scale controller can accept input from a number of scale platforms. For ease of use, this is often limited to about 4 bins. A display screen on the scale controller allows staff to read the weight on each scale platform. These units are configured as parts counting scales.
Take Control of Your Inventory with our Counting Scales
At Arlyn, we make sure our customer support staff is highly trained and well-informed. You’ll be able to get all the information you need in order to choose the parts counting scale that is the right fit for you.We also offer customization so if your business needs a scale more specifically designed for you, we’re happy to talk with you and supply you with a custom scale that gives you more of what you need. Use the form online to contact us with any questions or for assistance during your selection process.
